What killed my blenny!?

[ericbosco]

8pm last night, my bicolor blenny was swimming around happy as can be.
10pm last night, I find it dead, with a big chunk of it missing from its side. I find it right next to this thing that came with my live rock that was inflated.

It typically looks like a frilly mushroom, laying flat on the rock, sort of purplish with greenish frills. But after eating my blenny it looked smooth and had the shape of an inverted bowl. This morning it was back to being flat with frills.

Could it be a carpet anemone? It started out very small (I never noticed it), and now has grown to about 1.5"-2" accross.

Should I remove it from the tank? My other fish are 2 clowns, a 6 line wrasse and a yellowtail damsel.

Thanks,

-Eric

 

[Anonymous]

Does it have what appears to be a mouth in the center? if so it may be a species of coral that is predatory on small fish and the like. its common name is Elephant Ear coral. how big is it? if it is what I suggest it would need to be large enough to slowly envelop and trap your blenny. do a search on it.

Pod

 

[monkeyboy]

Bicolor's tend to sit on stuff, and it very well could have sat on your mystery anemone/shroom and got nailed. Once dead or paralized chunks could be taken by just about any of the fish. Unless you can get the yellow-tail to spill the beans, you really can't be sure of exactly what happened. I don't think that it would warrant removing the anemone/'shroom either. HTH

 

[ericbosco]

Thanks for your info. Turns out it is an elephant ear. I'll research it some more, but will probably leave it in there. I'll just get a non perching fish.