Darndest Thing I've Ever Seen

[Donya]

Well, one of the darndest things I've ever seen anyway in the gastropod world...my Cipraea tigris painstakingly eating 1 strand of Chaeto like a piece of spaghetti. I've seen Chaeto slurping before by other better-adapted gastropods, and I've seen this one try to eat the Chaeto before and fail because it's mouth really isn't well adapted for it, so this is the first time I've seen it succeed (wish I had video capabilities, because it's really one of the best examples of object manipulation ability I've seen from a gastropod). It's been slurping for 2 hours so far, thus prooving that no item, no matter what awkward shape, can be written off the diet for these guys.

 

[littleme1969]

LOL scary pic! Looks like something out of Doctor Who!
You seem to have quite a few nasty glas anenomes there

 

[Donya]

Yeah, the Aiptasia are a bit of an eyesore, but they do a good job filtering. They can hide out near the surface because my mean hermit can't get up there easily lol. So far they really arn't hurting anything in the tank, so I just cull them every now and then to keep the population managable (no corals or anything in that tank for them to sting).

 

[Musho3210]

wow, someone found a way to make peace with the anemones lol

 

[Lynden]

One of my palys ate a shed shrimp antenna a while ago. It just got shorter and shorter until finally disappearing.

By the way I've always liked Aiptasia...

 

[Donya]

wow, someone found a way to make peace with the anemones lol

I've made peace with the nems, but I have yet to make peace with the Chaeto...it's formed another 5" thick mat on the top of my other macro again because I havn't had time to trim it back for a couple weeks

 

[hubbard_shark]

i agree, aiptasia are great filter feeders, i have them growing in my refugium, and i just leave them. when they decide to reach the main tank, then ill juice them, but until then, let them be