Help Identify Material in Tank Please

[Jobiwan]

When I walked over to my tank last night I observed a large amount of wispy translucent material circulating in the water, some as large as 1 inch square, it rapidly broke apart in the current, so it may have been larger initially before I saw it. Within a few minutes it was no longer visible, having broken up into tiny bits. Didn't see any change in skimmer activity. It's my 600g tank, all water parameters are optimal. I'm wondering if one of the corals in this could have suddenly shed this, although based on the rapidity in which it broke down, it would have had to come off really fast, hard for me to imagine that. I've got a couple of montis in there, a pavona, a frogspawn and a couple of poicillapora (sp?) only softies are a couple of zoa rocks and 10 ricordea. Only inverts are snails and a few fire shrimp, there are about a dozen assorted fish, tank has been running 3 months, started with 800 pounds of LR that had been curing 5 months, innoculated thoroughly with aged water, detritus and gravel from my established tanks, no NH3, NO2 or NO3 ever detected. Any ideas?

 

[NC2WA]

You wouldn't have a pic by chance?

Do you glue your corals to the rock?

 

[Jobiwan]

It broke up in a couple of minutes while I watched it in fascination, gone by the time I thought about pics. The only glue used was IC Gel to attach some zoas, that was over a month ago. I'm not really concerned about this being something pathologic, I'm just curious to see if anyone else has seen this or knows what it might have been.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Could be a hardened mucus covering from a shrunken leather opening back up. They do this

 

[Scooterman]

If you have a wrasse, they make a mucus sack to sleep in at night?

 

[Jobiwan]

Both good suggestions guys, but the only softties I have are a few rics and zoas, and I gots no wrasses, I've got three clowns, three damsels, 2 yellow tangs, 1 Vlamingi tang, 1 Naso Tang, 1 purple tang, 1 Azfur angel, 1 coral beauty angel, 1 Foxface, 1 yellow clown goby, and 1 lawn mower blenny, I don't believe any of these would have shed that much mucous all at once, the stuff was very diaphanous and appeared to be a sheet like material, not globby at all...

 

[Herefishyfishy]

OK, guess we got it figured out then, it is clearly a very diaphanous sheet like material.

In all seriousness, perhaps just some built up film, that simply sloughed off from a quieter part of the tank/equipment

 

[Jobiwan]

:lol: I think we'll go with that Mike, unless someone has another ideeur, I can't equate it with any of the critters, maybe I'll feel around inside the top of the tank and see if there is anything strange there....

 

[brady816]

this may sound dumb but you think maybe one of your hermit crabs climbed on and was walking on your rics could cause some junk to come out. I know when i was redoing the tank and moving things around i seen some stuff come out of the rics and the frogspawn and hammer head. just my 2 cents probable not the best but ohh well.

 

[NC2WA]

Joe,

Mike bailed me out before with a **cause** for why my rabbitfish mysteriously died. The wife accepted it.

Go with it...

Kirk

 

[Herefishyfishy]

I hope I didn't contribute to any spousal lying now. Will have to make up for that unfortunate Karma

:lol::lol:

 

[NC2WA]

Oh, no. Not at all.

I was honest with her about the rabbitfish, she was OK. Since then, I purchased a blue throat triggerfish, one spot foxface, orange spotted rabbitfish, and a flame angel. The foxface and rabbitfish school together (really neat).

All of the fish with the exception of the flame, came from A Red Sea. The flame angel came from BR.

All are doing great and eating !!!

Kirk

 

[plack]

A Shrimp that shed?

Kirk I may come over to see all those new fish !

They sound awesome !!

 

[edwing206]

With that many algae eating fish you must have tons of nori in there right? I bet it was the thin top layer blown off. This happens to the pieces I put in when they are in the tank a long time. Just a guess.

 

[Jobiwan]

Not dumb at all brady, but there was just too much to have come from a ric or shrimp, a lot of the pieces were over one inch square before they disintegrated, hadn't fed nori for quite a while, they prefer chaeto from my fuge...