got quarantine?

[captbunzo]

Thought you all might enjoy this picture.... And while I can't post a link to the source thread directly (due to reef central rules), you can find a link to the source thread on flickr by clicking on the picture.......


got quarantine?

In short, someone posted a picture of this beasty. It's inside a big Culcita cushion star that had recently been purchased.

 

[MyMonkey]

What the heck is that?

 

[captbunzo]

Quoted from the other thread on that other board....

OK, so we imported a big Culcita cushion star this week. It started looking bad two days after arriving and we noticed a hermit crab picking a hole in it. I removed it to a quarantine tank and then this morning.... We see this hideous face looking at us through the hole:

OK, it's a Carapus sp. Or perhaps Encheliophis gracilis, which is listed as living in Culcita stars.

Replies in the other thread referred to exorcizing it and enlisting Sigourney Weaver to kill it for you, "but then it would come back three or four more times."

 

[MyMonkey]

Sorry, I read it after posting. Doh!

 

[exoticaquatics]

Its the gonad eating butt-fish. Some of you might remember the thread from a long time ago. They also live in the anus of a cucumber and eat its gonads, which they can reproduce. Hence, the gonad eating butt-fish.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

Common name; Pearlfish. Slang; Gonad Eating Butt Fish*.

Here is a little information - http://www.szgdocent.org/resource/ff/f-reef6c.htm

...And a picture from the site showing a pair and their host

*For those with the search feature available, search for "pearlfish" or "gonad eating butt fish" in the Lounge forum. It's a LONG thread, but filled with TONS of laughs.

 

[MyMonkey]

Projectile vomit: Many sea cucumbers have developed vomiting into an art of defence. They don't just throw up what they ate, but their entire digestive system and respiratory tree! This surprises the predator and distracts it. Many predators stop to snap up some of the tastier body bits, leaving the sea cucumber to slither off to safety. Sea cucumbers re-grow their innards over several months.

Now, that is just nasty.