Mucus cocoon cleanup

Chrisanthellae · Mar 30, 2022

As you know, certain fish like wrasses produce a mucus cocoon to sleep in at night. I have a six line wrasse that produces pretty robust cocoons... They tend to survive a whole day or sometimes even more, so I have 2-3 of these clumps of mucus floating around or stuck on rocks/corals at any given time. I know they're not harmful but they're not particularly aesthetically pleasing if I'm nit-picking.

So I was wondering, how long do the cocoons last for you guys? Are there any critters that would eat them? My blue leg hermits and emerald crabs won't touch them.

I already have pretty decent flow -- any more and my euphyllia will be quite unhappy.

sfin52 · Mar 30, 2022

Chrisanthellae said:
As you know, certain fish like wrasses produce a mucus cocoon to sleep in at night. I have a six line wrasse that produces pretty robust cocoons... They tend to survive a whole day or sometimes even more, so I have 2-3 of these clumps of mucus floating around or stuck on rocks/corals at any given time. I know they're not harmful but they're not particularly aesthetically pleasing if I'm nit-picking.

So I was wondering, how long do the cocoons last for you guys? Are there any critters that would eat them? My blue leg hermits and emerald crabs won't touch them.

I already have pretty decent flow -- any more and my euphyllia will be quite unhappy.

I've never noticed them. @Crabby48 any suggestions.

old salt reefer · Mar 30, 2022

I just suck them out with turkey baster.

i cant think · Mar 31, 2022

do the mucous cocoons look like cobwebs? I’ve never really noticed them but have seen what look like cobwebs on my rockwork. Always wondered what they looked like but every tank I’ve had a mucous sleeping wrasse, the cobwebs have appeared.

Chrisanthellae · Mar 31, 2022

i cant think said:
do the mucous cocoons look like cobwebs? I’ve never really noticed them but have seen what look like cobwebs on my rockwork. Always wondered what they looked like but every tank I’ve had a mucous sleeping wrasse, the cobwebs have appeared.

They look more like an amorphous blob/globe ime. Cobwebs on rockwork sounds more like vermetid snails to me.