Montipora digitata had a snail

owaindav · 01/22/2016, 06:01 PM

Ok, this one freaked me out. I noticed a peppermint shrimp messing around with a new monti digitata I picked up Monday. The monti had 2 bases but had grown together as the 2 branched. Then I notice some black at one of the bases and see a black lump on it. It was about 1/2" and the black on the monti spiraled up to it like a trail.

I pulled the monti and started looking more closely and got some tweezers to see what this was. It was hard and I realized it was a snail shell and it was attached to the monti. I pulled the snail off but as I did the whole branch broke off. (Shot across the counter and freaked me out because I wasn't putting much pressure on it) The snail shell was black and the snail was a light pinkish orange. And I saw the black that was on the outside of the monti went all the way through the coral.

I removed all the blackened coral and glued the broken piece onto one of my rocks. I'm sure this was there when I bought it and I didn't notice. (I'm going to have to be more thorough searching new pieces before I buy)

So I'm wondering if anyone knows what this was. Do you think, or know of, any problems I might encounter due to this pest? And lastly, do you ever stop being so stressed when you frag coral?

And of course I didn't get any pics because grabbing my phone was the very last thing on my mind when I saw something eating my beautiful new coral.

01/22/2016, 06:01 PM	#1
owaindav Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: Deep South Alabama Posts: 4	Montipora digitata had a snail Ok, this one freaked me out. I noticed a peppermint shrimp messing around with a new monti digitata I picked up Monday. The monti had 2 bases but had grown together as the 2 branched. Then I notice some black at one of the bases and see a black lump on it. It was about 1/2" and the black on the monti spiraled up to it like a trail. I pulled the monti and started looking more closely and got some tweezers to see what this was. It was hard and I realized it was a snail shell and it was attached to the monti. I pulled the snail off but as I did the whole branch broke off. (Shot across the counter and freaked me out because I wasn't putting much pressure on it) The snail shell was black and the snail was a light pinkish orange. And I saw the black that was on the outside of the monti went all the way through the coral. I removed all the blackened coral and glued the broken piece onto one of my rocks. I'm sure this was there when I bought it and I didn't notice. (I'm going to have to be more thorough searching new pieces before I buy) So I'm wondering if anyone knows what this was. Do you think, or know of, any problems I might encounter due to this pest? And lastly, do you ever stop being so stressed when you frag coral? And of course I didn't get any pics because grabbing my phone was the very last thing on my mind when I saw something eating my beautiful new coral.