Mexican Turbo Snail Eating Acropora

[Jared014]

Hey guys! Wanted to see if any of you have ever had this happen before. I caught one of my Mexican turbo snails red handed stripping the flesh off one of my acros. I had noticed the day before, a couple of acros that were healthy and encrusting were suddenly missing flesh in large patches but healthy polyps remained.

After lights out tonight I walked over to the tank and saw the snail grazing over an acro frag. I watched for several minutes as the snail gradually pulled more and more flesh off of the frag. Needless to say, he got evicted. Anybody else ever heard of or seen this before?

 

[Lavey29]

He is probably eating algae off a struggling coral.

 

[Jared014]

He is probably eating algae off a struggling coral.

Honestly this was a healthy coral with polyps galore. He stripped one whole side of it. The other side has flesh well intact with absolutely no algae. Same with the other acro that had the large patch eaten off of it. Polyps remain intact but flesh is eaten from around them. Hopefully it will recover.

 

[Lavey29]

Honestly this was a healthy coral with polyps galore. He stripped one whole side of it. The other side has flesh well intact with absolutely no algae. Same with the other acro that had the large patch eaten off of it. Polyps remain intact but flesh is eaten from around them. Hopefully it will recover.

Perhaps or perhaps he senses something.not clear to normal viewing. Interesting that he didn't kill the coral off just nibbled on it.

 

[Dburr1014]

Pics or it didn't happen.
I find, generally speaking, hermits and snails eat dead/dying flesh and leave healthy tissue alone.
But pics may tell more of the story.

 

[dadnjesse]

I have a tank full of mexican Turbo's ,like previously stated he is eating Algae most likely the Coral in question is decaying from something else.