When a Rhizo meets an anglerfish.

[Barrierreefaj]

So we've had this monster Rhizotrochus typus for a while now; hanging around eating all of our krill, and just looking awesome in general.

And it just so happens in the same tank we had this sargassum anglerfish.

Well this morning I come into the store to see said Rhizo with a big ball hanging out of its greedy little mouth.

Is he going for the whole thing in some hexacorallian chugging match? Or perhaps just savoring the tail like some morbid popsicle? Either way, his little tentacles were all a fluster with gluttonous delight.

So I pulled the angler out of his mouth and was getting ready to dispose of the fishy remains when I noticed its stomach was engorged, and a little sliver of caudel fin was visible from inside its formidible gullet. After a little tugging I unearthed the partially digested remnents of a green mandarin dragonet; measuring about the same as the angler that swallowed him!​

It seems the mandarin got in there by accident since the angler is hard to spot if you don't already know he's in there. Anyway, a green mandarin dragonet hanging out of a sargassm anglerfishes mouth, who was in turn hanging out of a Rhizos' mouth. Don't mess wth mother nature.

 

[returnofsid]

Holy Hungry Rhizo!!! The wonders of the natural food chain huh???

 

[ashton]

wow thats crazy. I never would have guessed all of that was in that Rhizo from looking at the third picture.

 

[jag3534]

Wow, that was pretty intense. crazy a*# fish

 

[jamiehill]

I moved mine into the frag tank. No fishies for it to catch there yet.

 

[roscoe]

Ahhh thanks for the pics looks. Nice to know this! Now rhizo's are completly out of my wish list of corals for the new tank. I can't beleive that thing ate a freaking angler fish with a mandarin in the angler's belly! The rhizo must have some strong grip on it's tentacles to be able to secure the angler from escaping!

 

[Barrierreefaj]

Well I think the Rhizos' fish catching abilities are exaggerated here. It's most likely that the anglerfish choked to death on his oversized meal, and then drifted into the Rhizo.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Sooo... did you check to see what was in the Mandarin's mouth?

 

[rjarnold]

Well I think the Rhizos' fish catching abilities are exaggerated here. It's most likely that the anglerfish choked to death on his oversized meal, and then drifted into the Rhizo.

Yeah, I doubt the angler was alive when the Rhizo got a hold of it. Anglers are certainly not the sharpest tool in the shed and WILL eat anything they can catch, even if it doesn't fit all the way down into the stomach - which usually ends up in their own death.

I've had a scoly eat a dead angler.

 

[Barrierreefaj]

Sooo... did you check to see what was in the Mandarin's mouth?

Ahh, I should have. It was probably full of copepods, which would in turn be full of phytoplankton!

 

[returnofsid]

This entire macabre scenario started with a Suicidal Mandarin!!!

 

[barrierreefcf]

This entire macabre scenario started with a Suicidal Mandarin!!!

Probably assisted suicide. Who gave Kevorkian a net