mesenterial filaments??

[rschneid]

I fed my corals for the 2nd time on Saturday. I have no fish but I have a very active CUC. I felt sorry for the CUC so about 3 minutes after I fed my coral I dropped in a very small piece of frozen reef food (i think its called reef frenzy). I carefully placed it where the snails would get to it. Within about 30 seconds the CUC was popping out of the sand and converging on the Reef Frenzy. This was fascinating to watch, as I really had no idea that there were so many of these guys buried in the sand or that they would respond so fast. Then I noticed that there appeared to be a filamentous net coming out of one of the two heads on my Frog Spawn. I watched in a combination of fear and amazement as this net thing waved around over the frogspawn. Then about 10 minutes later I noticed a singular thread coming out of one of my other corals. For that one I have attached a pic. I am sorry the quality is so bad, I am still shooting from my iPhone :-(

The Frog Spawn appeared to "suck back in" its net after about 10 minutes. The smaller coral appeared to cut loose its single thread.

I have questions. Is this mesenterial filaments? Did they come out because of the targeted feeding of microvores? Did they come out because of the "Feeding Frenzy" which I think is just fish? Does it tell me anything about the health of my corals? Are they hungry, desperate or just behaving normally? Why do just some heads produce threads but not all? Why did the Frogspawn appear to pull its 'net' back in while the other coral cut its loose?



Very curious
Rich S.

 

[MidwesternTexan]

Well, I never spot feed any of my over 70+ different tpes of coral.

But, anytimne I mess with one of them, they usually do that for a little bit.

Should be fine.

 

[cloak]

IME, Messenterial Filaments were always used as a defense mechanism than anything else. They might have been, but my guess is that it was just a reaction from the food. Just keep an eye on them. GL.