Bubble coral ate snail ?

[schatzi]

So i was using the magfloat on the glass an knocked a small cerith snail, maybe half inch at best, onto my bubble coral. Coral sucked it right in, so I was wondering what happens to the snails shell? Can the coral digest that?

 

[SomeDude12]

Most likely, the bubble will expel the snail shortly. I've seen various corals eat even food and decide it wasn't interested by spitting the food back out. I wouldn't be too concerned.

 

[MechEng99]

Usually the coral will digest the living matter and expel the shell later. Nothing to worry about other than losing a snail.

 

[Dexters Reef]

Happened to me the other day...walked by and saw crab legs sticking out of one of my armor of god zoanthids, the coral spit an empty shell out later in the day

View attachment 207516

 

[El Dude]

^^^ That's cool!

 

[staindsoul]

that is one tough zoa!

 

[Dexters Reef]

Yea, it reminded me of a Venus fly trap plant lol. It looked like the crab tried to walk across and the zoanthid just engulfed it and ate him

This wasn't one of those tiny hermits either, it was a regular size blue leg one

 

[SushiGirl]

Not as exciting as legs sticking out, but on 2 occasions I've accidentally knocked little snails into the Pagoda. It's funny when they land on it because it's like they're landing on a giant down mattress LOL. They hit the surface, sink in, then totally disappear. Later the coral spits the shell out & works it to the edge where it finally drops off.

This one had landed in the middle of the coral. This was day 2 after the coral ate it, shell's almost to the edge.

 

[ClownFishKeeper]

My Aussie bubble ate my Snowflake Ocellaris that was happily hosting it for about 3 months. I guess I wasn't target feeding it enough.

 

[sansupt]

No skerries the shell will be spit out after meat is eaten. happens in my tank all the time. my rbta does this at least 1 x a month.

 

[Spyderturbo007]

My Aussie bubble ate my Snowflake Ocellaris that was happily hosting it for about 3 months. I guess I wasn't target feeding it enough.

How does that work? Does the coral just decide to sting when it's hungry? Tough loss though based on how much they charge for the Snowflakes.