Any clue what these 2 things on my moon coral are???

[MelanieF]

So in the pic below there are two things that are bugging me...

1st) In the lower left there is this bump in the ridge that appears to have some yellowish ball inside. This bump migrates all over this coral always staying in the ridges and never seeming to cause any harm. Any clue?

2nd) In the center of the pic you'll see this weird area which appears like some sort of tissue damage only it's not... this also migrates all over the coral. This morning it was lower left, afternoon on very top of coral and now in center. It doesn't seem to stay in any particular shape, changes from circular to oblong, seems clear around the edges with "tissue damage looking center" and also not seeming to do any damage to the coral itself. A second one of these is now on the bottom of this coral, also migrating. Any clue?

I've had this coral for a year and a half now, noticed bump w/ ball about 2 months after purchase and noticed migrating tissue damage thing yesterday.

 

[Len]

Hey Melanie,

I wouldn't worry. Sometimes corals have swollen cells like the thing in the lower left. It happens for various reasons, mostly beneign. It even could be an egg under the gastrodermis. If you see the brain coral spit out little yellow/orange balls at night, then they're eggs for sure The area in the middle is simply the polyp tentacles extended. I can't really say why it's moving from spot to spot, but I can assure you it's nothing more then the tentacles extended and orifice open. It may be feeding or it may be expelling something (waste, eggs, etc.).

You got yourself a nice colony there. Sit back and watch it grow 8)

 

[MelanieF]

Len,

I'll keep an eye on the ball thing, maybe you're right and it's just an egg or something. I wouldn't think an odd growth would migrate so it's probably not that.

The flesh wound looking thing is not the polyps. (I know what extended polyps look like... :lol: ) This thing is not part of the coral at all. It is positively some sort of organism. I took a turkey baster and gently blew water at it and it came off and starting migrating across the sand back towards the moon coral... 8O

Mel

 

[MelanieF]

So me thinks I may be on to something... aarrrgggghhhh

Below pics look VERY similar to fleshy wound thingy... six line wrasse just arrived and went into quarantine tank today w/ a vacation in my reef planned for two weeks. I wonder if these will disappear once he finds them?...

 

[MelanieF]

By the way... found those two pics on:

http://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~bu ... ion07.html

 

[Len]

The lower portion of the green look like polyps extended. The top portion might be a flatworm the coral is trying to eat. Perhaps you should siphon it out for close inspection.

 

[MelanieF]

I siphoned out the two I could see and have them in a glass right now... will attempt pics from above and below once they flatten back out. I'm not gonna promise pic quality at this point but stay tuned...

 

[MelanieF]

Two pics from above; one over white paper and one over black shirt.

One pic from below.

The pics aren't as detailed as I'd like but I think I'm a bit limited by my camera.

So since these haven't intentionally left the moon coral, and when blown off returned, is there any chance they were trying to eat my moon coral?

I'm not putting them back in either way...

 

[Len]

Yep, flatworms I doubt they were trying to eat your brain coral, and the opposite is probably true. The flatworms were probably cruising around, scavaenging, and the brain coral probably was trying to eat it. The little bumps in your first photo (lower left) might simply be a polyp that recently captured a flatworm.

Flatworms are usually beneign, but they can grow to plague-like proportions. I'd try to get rid of them now. A recent/current thread about one method: http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=79677