ID Please - Something is Eating my Frogspawn

[waltercat]

So this thing ate one of the heads on my frogspawn. It started to eat another one and I pulled it off. It then grew back 2 days later and started up again.

I've kept reefs for 20 years and have no idea what it is. It looks like a sponge, or a worm with crushed coral sticking to it. The transparent tube runs down the length of the coral's hard skeleton. I pulled about 3 inches off of it, and 2 days later it had grown back.

The tube seems empty, I haven't seen anything inside it.

Anyone know what it is?!

 

[marrone]

I've had this in my tank too. I'm not sure what it is, not a worm, but some type of sponge or growth that will grow over corals and kill them.

 

[Dre]

Wow, I've never seen that before. I would remove it before it spread...

 

[waltercat]

It looks like a sponge, but it grows with a very specific intent. It's not just growing over the coral, it is eating the coral. It ate one head, then moved over to another head and started eating that one. It looks like it attaches to the mouth of the coral.

 

[Dre]

Why don't you kill it sir, if it has bad intentions?

 

[waltercat]

Why don't you kill it sir, if it has bad intentions?

I live in DC and contacted the Baltimore aquarium on the off chance someone there might be able to ID it and if they can't, they may want check it out.

The coral head is pretty much dead, so I am observing this monster right now. It's fascinating, so don't want to kill it. The only way to kill it is to toss the coral head. I ripped off 3 inches of it a few days back and it regrew quickly.

 

[nellynel21]

The clear tube is the bridge that the worm built . They come out to eat on the night time .
What you have is a species of Lysidice, a genus in the family Eunicidae. The well-known palolo worm of Samoa belongs to this genus.
If you dont try catching it ,,he will keep eating all your corals and it wont be FASCINATING to watch

 

[Dre]

The clear tube is the bridge that the worm built . They come out to eat on the night time .
What you have is a species of Lysidice, a genus in the family Eunicidae. The well-known palolo worm of Samoa belongs to this genus.
If you dont try catching it ,,he will keep eating all your corals and it wont be FASCINATING to watch[/QUOT]



I can understand that, interesting...

 

[oh207]

Wow! Its like an El Chapo escape tunnel.

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