White balls in xenia

[duberii]

I've been seeing these for a while, but noticed tons more recently. Inside the stalks, and even the frilly part of the polyps, there are these circular white balls. I thought it was sand, but the tank is bare bottom, and the little sand I can't get out for the life of me does not look even remotely similar. They are certainly inside the coral and not on the outside, so if it is some type of egg, it must be living inside the coral. There are also a few places where the balls seem to pile up, and there is a clump of 5-10 of them. It's about time I trim back the xenia, so I'll probably cut most of them out in the process, but I'm curious if anybody else has these/knows what they are.

 

[Chrisv.]

Looks like you will have more xenia soon.

Neat to observe, probably not ideal.

Embryogenesis and acquisition of algal symbionts by planulae of Xenia umbellata (Octocorallia: Alcyonacea) - Marine Biology

Early embryogenesis of the internally brooding soft coral Xenia umbellata and acquisition of algal symbionts in the course of its planular ontogenesis have been examined by scanning and transmission electron microscopy and by light microscopy. The endoderm of adult X. umbellata harbours...

link.springer.com

 

[oceanleaf]

That's really cool!
I have never seen something like this on xenia before.
Also, congrats on getting a lot more xenia soon.

 

[duberii]

@ReefSquad

That's really cool!
I have never seen something like this on xenia before.
Also, congrats on getting a lot more xenia soon.

thanks! This morning I noticed that a lot of the Xenia babies that were in the frilly part of the polyps are gone… maybe I’m too late to trimming the xenias back. I should get a syringe and lemon juice ready