Rhodactis eating

[Troender]

I've had some fluffy mushrooms I didn't have an ID on. Today I found out that they are Rhodactises, as I found one of them like this:

:uhoh2:
It scared the living daylight out of me, as I know my female mandarin fish is very, very tiny, and could definitely be the one in the mushroom's belly. In panic, I started to tear out some rocks, in hope that my two tiny mandarins would come out and have a look. And they did! None of them were eaten. None of my fish were eaten. It's probably their breakfast that was the victim, as it landed close to the Rhodactis this morning. Lucky mushroom, and lucky mandarins. Now that I don't have to worry about any of my beloved fish, it's quite fascinating to watch this. I will worry about the mandarins until they've grown bigger though. They are definitely small enough to be eaten, and they love to walk around looking for food in that area.

The mushroom has started opening up again now, and it's definitely the frozen mysis that's been eaten.

Almost totally open now, but the food is still in its mouth:

 

[snorvich]

Actually you do have to worry about your fish as Rhodactis will eat them if it can get them.

 

[wiz careefa]

they pretty much eat everything and attack everything

 

[Troender]

How do they do it? All I've seen of them so far, has been really slow. My clowns like to brush into them, and the mushrooms move very slowly.

 

[DallasNYC]

My experience has been that the mushrooms move too slow and any live creature moves too fast or is strong enough to break free. They would close up even if a small blue leg crab would brush against them. I figure it was to protect themselves, but maybe they were in for the catch..

I guess it would depend on the stickyness / sting / size of the mushroom. As I can definitely say that Ive seen small anemones like a white ball anemone grab hold of a fish.

Still interesting to see. Nice picture taking and documentation.

 

[snorvich]

How do they do it? All I've seen of them so far, has been really slow. My clowns like to brush into them, and the mushrooms move very slowly.

If your clowns are "associating" with them (what is improperly termed "hosting") they will become dinner. It is interesting when the rhodactis expels the skeleton but probably not from the fish's perspective.

 

[Davy854]

This is a rhodactis eating a king prawn about 2 inches in length it spat out the tail after about 15 mins

 

[snorvich]

This is a rhodactis eating a king prawn about 2 inches in length it spat out the tail after about 15 mins

Yes, they expel residuals.