i have been noticing a white spot in the middle of my purple monti cap..iut has been there for a few weeks..i kept looking at it, and couldn't tell if the spot was growing..today, i realized that it was...i have noticed that there was something living on it, i just didn't know if it was eating it..i never really saw the creature, just two antenae's coming out of a hole...i got some tweezers and tried to grab it..it went into the hole.. i broke open its tube that it was hiding in..it went way back to the edge of the cap..i ended up distoying the tube that it had burrowed..i guess i got the predator..there was alot of slime coming from the cap, so i couldn't tell if i actually got it..it appears to be gone though, but now i have this white line that is about 1" long in my cap..any clue what this critter was?
Strange Monti Cap Predator
- Thread starter ronj
- Start date
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DonW
R.I.P.
Vermatid sp? I dont worry about them.
Don
Don
DonW
R.I.P.
Yup. I like to let them go, they cause the cap to want to start another swirl or layer. Eventuall the cap will win and completely encrust over them. I like oddly formed caps though.
Don
DonW
R.I.P.
Maybe, those tube worms like lower flow.
Don
Don
charlesr1958
DiveMaster
With "two antennae", I would guess it to be a spionid worm, which are very commonly found burrowed into coral's skeletons. Does the coral no harm and as noted earlier, the coral will grow to encrust it.
Chuck
Chuck
SueT
Well-known member
be thankful it wasn't a monti eating nudi. These vermitid worms are nothing to second think about. If you got it, then the montipora will recover given good flow and stable params. Montipora do like their flow. I have all mine getting moderate, random flow.
steve-s
Well-known member
Much less likely but also possible are barnacles or gall crabs.
