Dendro ate a Stomatella - pics

[raoul]

I got what I thought was a tubastria around Christmas, but it seems more likely that it's a dendro (thanks for the heads up guys!) I still don't know what the big differences are, if anyone could let me know that would be great. I assume care is the same as the tubastrias.

Anyway, I found it nice and open yesterday morning. When I turned on the lights it started shrinking a little, and then opening its mouth. I wasn't sure what I was seeing, but to my astonishment, it was spitting out a stomatella shell. I decided to take pics. The snail was still attached to the shell a little, but the dendro was able to push out the shell enough that the shell fell but still hold on to the snail. After the shell dropped the dendro slurped the snail back in. I didn't think I needed to feed him last night since he'd made his own arrangements

Is this common? I'm guessing the snail tried to go over it at some point after lights out, but I don't know what happened after that that it couldn't get away.

If you're interested in seeing some of what I saw, I've included a thumbnail picture link to more photos of the process.

 

[JGoslee]

Thats pretty cool. How long did it take for the stomatella to be completely eaten?

 

[kiknchikn]

That's amazing. Great sequence of pics! I love Stomatella varias though, so it's kind of sad too =P

 

[raoul]

Timing is a tricky question JGoslee. It was open and plump all morning, which has not been characteristic of this guy. It seems to have caught the snail sometime during the night, and didn't begin spitting it out until I turned the lights on about 12:15 or so. I would estimate that the time it started spitting to the time it slurped up the snail was about 15 mins.

One thing I didn't get a pic of was sometime later the mouth was gaping open, I could see completely inside the polyp. I don't know if it spit out the snail (but it didn't even open that wide to spit out the much bigger harder shell) or if it was just releasing waste.

Kiknchikn - I like my stomatellas too, they're doing an awesome job in my tank. If I had been there in the begining I probably would have intervened. But I wasn't so I documented it with pictures since I was so surprised and blown away by what was happening.

Thanks guys!

 

[kiknchikn]

I just recently lost my two stomatellas to my emerald crab *shakes fist angrily @ crab* :mad2:

They were two of the first creatures that appeared out of my live rock so I was quite fond of them. Thankfully I have a source for more of them once I finish making my refugium.

 

[raoul]

Those rotten emeralds! My stomatellas came in as hitchikers. We've been letting them populate the tank, and I hope soon to move a couple over to another tank and let them populate over there too

 

[kiknchikn]

Rotten emerald indeed. It coexisted just fine with the stomatellas for 7 months and then decided to eat them both in a week. I was hoping they'd populate the tank too. They "mated" and released eggs at least 20 times that I saw (I actually have a picture of it in the Gallery section of my website: www.mikesreef.com), but never got any babies from it.

 

[raoul]

I've never seen mine do any "mating", but I see little ones all the time. I have some med. sized nass. snails that lay eggs all the time, but nothing comes of that.

I noticed earlier that you're from MD - my husband grew up out that way in Anne Arundel county (Glen Burnie). My dad retired from the AF out there so we were there for a few years too.

Every few years we make it back there for a visit

 

[kiknchikn]

I love MD I hope you get a chance to visit during the fall when the leaves are changing, especially in the mountains of western MD. Very pretty time of year.

Here's a pic of my Stomatellas mating, since you haven't seen yours doing it:


www.MikesReef.com

 

[raoul]

I've seen the leaves changing, it is beautiful!
The thing I didn't like was how crowded it felt. We weren't far from Baltimore, so that was part of it I'm sure. My b-i-l and his family live in western MD on a little over an acre, it definately didn't feel crowded there!

Missouri has some hills, but for the most part feels pretty open. The Kansas City area, outside downtown, has been experiencing quite a bit of growth over the last 5-6 years. Hopefully we don't start packing people in like sardines.

We usually make it out in the summer months when the kids are out of school so we're there when it's HOT

Back to the snails - I've seen my nass. snails do this kind of thing, but I don't know that I've caught my stomatellas in such a compromising position
Thanks!

 

[kiknchikn]

Yeah, I consider GB part of the city. I live out in northern MD with the cows and horses. I can't imagine living anywhere else

 

[Gordonious]

raoul your link will not load

 

[raoul]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9083246#post9083246 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Gordonious
raoul your link will not load

Well, that stinks
I think something's going on at the site, I couldn't get it to load either and I noticed one of the local reefers was having some trouble tonight too. I'll see if I can find out what's going on
Thanks for the heads up!

 

[raoul]

Brad from saltbucket said the problem with the server is fixed, and I double checked the link and it works now

 

["Umm fish?"]

Crazy photos! Just be prepared (not that I know what you could do at this point): one of my protopalythoa ate a snail once that I had knocked off the aquarium glass by accident. I guess the snail was pretty toxic because the zoa looked like it really took a beating from trying to digest it. It did eventually recover, though.

Good luck!

 

[raoul]

I've been watching it daily and so far so good. I almost wish it could feed itself Then I wouldn't worry about forgetting!

 

[Gordonious]

Awesome. I've always wondered how these critters got enough to eat in the wild. They are real opportunistic predators. Mine even try to eat large formula one pellets.

 

[raoul]

Thanks I'm constantly amazed at the things in my oceans