Coral Gone Missing

ldzielak · #1 10-17-2002, 05:43 AM

Here are 2 pictures of a "Kenya" (sp.) coral I purchased from J&L well over a year ago. Anybody help to identify this one?

This first picture was the main colony, that died last pring, almost from the inside out.

This second is the frag I broke off by accident one day and attached to a rock, over a year ago.

This coral looks to some like a common colt, but its not the same, never seen any more like it. It does not extend very far and grows very slowly. So today I get home and look at it and it's gone, looks like it was chopped right of the rock. Nobody was in the tank doing any maintenance today. So I start looking around for the broken off piece. I finally find it stuffed into a hole about 1" arround with only the ends sticking out and they are all retracted. So I use my tongs and pull in back out, well something had the other end and I only managed a small piece, the rest was pulled into the rock. I never noticed to hole before, I don't have any crabs even close to big enough to cut a 1" arround coral at the base, and drag it 3 feet over rocks into a small hole in a rock. Any ideas what I have in the tank and what I could be up against?? I really hope it does not like SPS. Why couldn't this "THING" like xenia!!!

Lee

ldzielak · #2 10-18-2002, 05:14 AM

So I found my Kenya Tree Coral, Nephthea, here. Now I just have to find out what kind of crab I guess would eat this guy.

Lee

Canadian Man · #3 10-18-2002, 05:31 AM

Cool,
I have the EXACT same coral in my tank and always reffered to it as a colt coral.
I guess now i got a piece of kenya in my reef

ldzielak · #4 10-18-2002, 06:10 AM

So here is a blurry picture of the coral pulled into the rock. I can't get a good picture, since it's on the back side of my tank. this rock in 25 lbs. This is the same rock the origianl colony was on last year. Maybe there was a crab in the small roak it was mounted on, and now has made a home in this rock. The rock had some while, sponge like growth over this area. I did not think much since it was growing slowly, could this crad been hiding in a cocoon, or something?

sumpfinfishe · #5 10-18-2002, 03:17 PM

That looks like Colt to me. I had two small frags of this coral last year until my pistol shrimp discovered it, then it was gone in a few weeks. In the last week I finally caught the shrimp eating it when I turned on the bedroom light late at night. Hope that helps!

Bob I · #6 10-18-2002, 04:36 PM

I guess we have this common name problem here. I have a similar piece to yours. Mine is now about ten inches across. I tend to call it Capnella sp. I have a smaller type of capnella that does not grow as fast. I am thinking of hosting a meeting at my place so that we can decide how to frag my beast.

christyf5 · #7 10-18-2002, 05:35 PM

Hey Lee,
What is the white fuzzy stuff surrounding the base of the coral stuck in that hole?? I was just wondering because at one point I had a white fuzzy thing similar to that (yes I know the picture is waay out of focus) that was a coral eating nudibranch that in particular had a fondness for my colt which it ate most of before I finally figured out what was going on and hauled it out of there.
Just a thought

Christy