Fungia mucus

[ozyreefa]

Hello all, had a rather curious observation during my coral feeding session last night, and have failed to find any real info regarding what may have happened. After feeding my corals the usual mix of foods (reef roids/Cyclopeze/oyster eggs/mysis and brine shrimp mix) I saw a previously undetected xanthid crab come darting out of the rock work and towards a fungia that was about halfway through swallowing a cluster of food. The crab grabbed a bit of food that was covered in the fungias digestive mucus and then (I'm assuming it may have instantly started to eat the stolen food) within seconds had a rather violent looking muscular spasm and died right there on top of the fungia.

Now I'm assuming the mucus was toxic enough to kill the crab if ingested but was surprised at the lack of similar reports after a bit of searching which leads me to think that it may have been some other mechanism, stinging via tentacles perhaps? I was under the impression initially that the digestive system of xanthids was more than capable of handling such toxicity but now I'm clueless. Any ideas?

 

[Fish Ed]

Interesting. Well that's one way of getting rid of Xanthid crabs.

 

[ozyreefa]

Yeah as I saw it moving towards the fungia I was already cursing at it, then cringed as it walked across, was just about ready to shove my arm in there thinking it would crab a bunch of food as well as any coral flesh that got in the way, luckily it carefully grabbed a handful, then promptly committed suicide on the spot. Been reefing for some years now and I have never seen anything like this happen before. At first I was relieved and then started thinking, how the hell did that just happen.

 

[Fish Ed]

Well I was thinking the crab choked enough coral slime to kill it but I gotta cross that possibility out since Xanthids are coral eaters, they should be able to do that.

 

[Reef Frog]

Interesting. Last night I saw one of my Narsnarius snails raid my Orange Fungia with no ill effects. Never observed that before. I even target fed him right before this happened.

My skunk ceaner shrimp consider it a free lunch buffet with no mortalities witnessed.

 

[Specktrometer]

Today i noticed my new fungia secreting mucus out of it's mouth, using the soft tissue as a pump. At first i thought it was cool, but now, a few hours later, my goby and firefish look like they aren't going to make it. The serpent star i have completely robbed the tiny shrimp food i put on the fungia, right out of it's mouth. I suspect this fungia is not good with fish. All other corals and invertibrates seem ok, for now.