Torch Dropped A Tentacle?

[xxBarneyxx]

Last night I noticed my bubble coral seemed to have put out a sweeper tentacle. On closer inspection though it was actually one from my torch coral (the bubble had just caught it and was trying to eat it).

I have never seen this happen before, the torch still looks fine and the tentacle itself was fully inflated (until the bubble dropped it and it got caught in a power head).

Is it one that maybe the clown had pulled off or is this some form of reproduction? I would have thought if the clown had pulled it off it wouldn't have been inflated still while it was floating about?

 

[seffieuk]

Seem to remember Eric B writing about this in The Book - it is unproven yet but some believe it may be a form of reproduction

Seffie x

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Seem to remember Eric B writing about this in The Book - it is unproven yet but some believe it may be a form of reproduction

Seffie x

Cool, was going to try and catch it but by the time I had figured out what it actually was and got the net out it had already been diced by the powerhead. Will keep a watch on it and if it happens again I will try and grab it and put it in a breeding net with some LR rubble.

 

[SkiFletch]

Actually I might think that's just the byproduct of coral aggression. Perhaps the torch was cutting it's losses...

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Actually I might think that's just the byproduct of coral aggression. Perhaps the torch was cutting it's losses...

Possibly but the Torch is a good 1ft away from any other coral (except some GSP which is a couple of inches under it), the bubble coral is about 3ft away from it. Could be because of the phosphate and nitrate levels I had been having issues with but since these have started coming back down again the torch has looked healthier then every.

The only other thing I can think of if that I have been feeding it a lot more recently.

 

[seffieuk]

Eric Bourneman...............

'It has been reported on several occassions that sweeper tentacles of E ancora (so why not divisia or paradivisia, Seffie's comment) may sometimes stick to the substrate and break off, where they will form new colonies. If this is true, it would be a totally novel and hither to undocumented form of asexual reproduction in the cnidarians and should be carefully documented. Further more sometimes these tips are readily broken off in currents, having been completely pinched off by the animal prior to realise. This does not seem to occure in stressed or weak animals, and it may be either an unreported form of asexual reproduction or a generalised defense mechanism. Tentical tips, with swollen, acrospheres are more likely to detached and the drifting tips , completely sealed like neutrally bouyant water ballons, stick onto virtually any surface they encounter, often causing substanial demage to other life........... '

Interesting, well, I thought it was

Seffie x