ReefPops
Well-Known Member
Well, hopefully not the same thing that was in mine. I had an interesting situation occur that I thought I would share. I had recently acquired a master scoly (a beauty at that) from another member. When I got it, I quickly noticed that it wasn't quite coloring up. Not necessarily looking worse, but not in it's glory either and not really receding. So I put it in the shade and low flow in hopes it would get better. For a month it sat there, eating, puffing up, looking great, but still pale. I was annoyed and baffled, but still kept my fingers crossed (now I have a lot of scolys so I am familiar with how to care for them, hence my frustrations). Anyway, at the same time, I also started to see a strange black mass under the tissue, near the center of the scoly, just a little bit away from the mouth. I had no idea what it was and just chalked it up to coraline on the skeleton from an old wound or some strange inside matter of the scoly that I just didn't know about since the rest of mine aren't this faded. It was there for awhile (weeks) and didn't notice changes, just that it was there. That was of course, until I could have sworn I saw it moving.
Eventually it aggravated me enough that I decided I had to see if something was in there (this is an abbreviated version of the 1.5 month process and I don't normally cut into scolys, this one had just recently had tissue from a hammer drop and burn it, so make it right or wrong, I felt I had nothing to lose). We used a razor blade and made a small incision into the scoly and saw nothing. Looked like almost a shadow that appeared to move with the light. Again, baffled, and now thinking I'm crazy for cutting in to this beautiful thing. Watching it's recovery, I then noticed the black thing WAS moving and reacted to the light, retracting in every time. I had to go in again. This time I went in, thinking this is killing it so either I am speeding up the process or maybe saving it's life. Sure enough, after quite the "surgery," I extracted the thing pictured below (bad iPhone pic). Best guess is that this is a razor clam (thanks Mike) and I believe that this is 100% what it was after looking in to it. This thing was bigger than the scolys mouth and my my guess is that it was there since collection, either embedded or eaten, but growing this whole time. Good news (knock on wood) is that the scoly does appear to be recovering and even thought it did have some tissue loss near the mouth, it looks like it may make it. Still haven't attempted to feed it yet, but from what I've seen with the strength of this guy and other scolys I've seen recover, I won't count this guy out yet.
Again, hopefully no one else experiences this, including me. I hated the whole thing. I don't like fragging pieces, let alone cutting in to one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, but hopefully I did save it's life, because this thing looks like it would have killed it.
Eventually it aggravated me enough that I decided I had to see if something was in there (this is an abbreviated version of the 1.5 month process and I don't normally cut into scolys, this one had just recently had tissue from a hammer drop and burn it, so make it right or wrong, I felt I had nothing to lose). We used a razor blade and made a small incision into the scoly and saw nothing. Looked like almost a shadow that appeared to move with the light. Again, baffled, and now thinking I'm crazy for cutting in to this beautiful thing. Watching it's recovery, I then noticed the black thing WAS moving and reacted to the light, retracting in every time. I had to go in again. This time I went in, thinking this is killing it so either I am speeding up the process or maybe saving it's life. Sure enough, after quite the "surgery," I extracted the thing pictured below (bad iPhone pic). Best guess is that this is a razor clam (thanks Mike) and I believe that this is 100% what it was after looking in to it. This thing was bigger than the scolys mouth and my my guess is that it was there since collection, either embedded or eaten, but growing this whole time. Good news (knock on wood) is that the scoly does appear to be recovering and even thought it did have some tissue loss near the mouth, it looks like it may make it. Still haven't attempted to feed it yet, but from what I've seen with the strength of this guy and other scolys I've seen recover, I won't count this guy out yet.
Again, hopefully no one else experiences this, including me. I hated the whole thing. I don't like fragging pieces, let alone cutting in to one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, but hopefully I did save it's life, because this thing looks like it would have killed it.
I really hope it pays off and I'll be able to say I saved it. It's actually close to being healed. Just one small hole, next to/connected to the mouth.
