Plate Coral eating a Bristle Worm

[NanoNano]

Thought this was pretty cool. I just happened to catch him in the act. Bristle got too close I guess.

 

[tc269]

hmm not to burst your bubble but thats a problem.. he is not actually eating it the bristle worm, the worm is acctually going into the plate coral to steal any food that it might have..

 

[NanoNano]

hmm not to burst your bubble but thats a problem.. he is not actually eating it the bristle worm, the worm is acctually going into the plate coral to steal any food that it might have..

Hmmm. I never saw it come back out. What would the problem be?

 

[drainbamage]

Not saying this is what's going on, but iin my chalice tank the bristle worms will aggresivley go after the target feeding food, and attempt to crawl on and even into the mouths. I'd wager that's what's going on here, and while it's not an instant fatality thing, the cause of concern would be the bristle worm irritating the mouth of the plate, plus he's stealing the food. Not a major issue, but maybe next time grab some tweezers and pluck him out when you see him do it. That's been my technique and the bristle's have all gotten a LOT more shy about being out when the lights are on.

 

[NanoNano]

Not saying this is what's going on, but iin my chalice tank the bristle worms will aggresivley go after the target feeding food, and attempt to crawl on and even into the mouths. I'd wager that's what's going on here, and while it's not an instant fatality thing, the cause of concern would be the bristle worm irritating the mouth of the plate, plus he's stealing the food. Not a major issue, but maybe next time grab some tweezers and pluck him out when you see him do it. That's been my technique and the bristle's have all gotten a LOT more shy about being out when the lights are on.

Gotcha. Will do thanks. That's the first time I've seen one with the lights on. It was surprising.

 

[drainbamage]

yea, the little buggers get more and more bold about coming out during lights-on if they realize no predators are after them. Never had the problem in my tank, then one day I turned lights back on to feed, and I think they realized that noone swooped down to eat them, so it was safe to come out with lights on. They've since been sufficiently swooped upon :bigsmile:

BTW, nice looking plate! Any more pics of him? Maybe in full spectrum?

 

[NanoNano]

Thanks! I'll try to get some better pics tomorrow. Every camera I have takes everything SUPER blue in my tank. I can't figure it out.

 

[drainbamage]

try either turning off a few of your actinics if you run a heavily blue bulb combo-also some adjusting in an editor might be required (such as an "auto-levels" to bring the white back in and kill some of the blue.) I've definitley learned to appreciate the folks who put up those killer photos as it's definitley an aquired skill.

 

[myjohnson]

Sweet baby Jesus.

 

[kingmushroom]

I lift a rock and a small bristle worm felt over this plate coral. The worm tried to escape but the plate move it into the mouth and started to swallow it.
I didn't stay awake into the night to look if the worm escaped but as far as I saw it was being treated as lunch.
After a month, the plate is looking fine.
I didn't saw anything that looked that the coral was being molested, but the bristle worm was clearly trying to escape.

 

[kingmushroom]

I forgot to mention, one of my fingers pointed me out that this kind of worm is a fire worm.
So plate, It was like eating a hot chili pepper?