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Hi all, I was wondering if I could pick your brains for a minute.
I recently got a small superman montipora frag(thanks again jim), Last night a bahli slimmer was knocked over onto the superman.
The superman has gone a very light brown and is covered in slime, I didnt know the slimmer as being aggresive but the superman does not look good. Is there anything I can do? Are the slimmers a real toxic coral?
Thanks guys,
John

I don’t know if slimmers are "toxic" but with any coral they have a mechanism to compete for space within the reef. They digest coral that is near them. Some corals are considered "hotter" than others. "Hotter" may mean the coral is more likely to attack first or it has a stronger sting than the other coral.

If your superman is covered in slime, that slime is most likely the stomachs of the other coral and will continue to digest the superman. Usually by the time that slime covers the coral, its game over. If there are any parts of the superman that wasn’t covered, that will probably continue to grow, but the portion that is covered, it’s pretty much over for it.

I have never heard of corals releasing digestive enzymes onto another coral (not that they don't), but almost all corals have a defense mechanism called nematocysts that is a type of chemical war between competing corals. From what I have read as far as SPS's go montipora have a very weak defense system. They can even loose space to leathers and even some species of soft corals. So it might be a good idea to just maybe give them a little more room.

I could be wrong and should probabaly read up on it more, but I thought nematocysts were the stinging cells in the tentacles of the corals and other stinging celled animals. They use the nematocysts to immobilize and capture their prey. (same cells that jellyfish use)

It sure looked like chemical warfare. I was just amazed because it could not have been touching for more then 6 hours.slimer was tipped over right onto it.6 hours was enough to waste the superman, nutts.
guess I will have to be more careful. Thanks for the info guys.
John

Oh well that's life, Next time your around I have another one for yeah!

Bummer. I lost a pretty chalice frag that way but I don't know what it was that slimed it. It wasn't touching anything. LPS can be finicky like that though. Darn sweepers! I didn't think anything was close enough to it. Nice piece too. Strawberry Dream or something like that. Hope I can find another chunk some day!

Thats very cool jim!TY I was suprised at how fast it grew.It was almost completly covering the plug already.
I got some new 20k HQI bulbs and it was getting a nice purple to it.
I made sure to move all my stuff just to be safe,getting rid of the 2 pound turbo snails would probably be wise to I guess.....

Mattewell, here is a book I found very useful when searching for info about corals, AQUARIUM CORALS: Selection, Husbandry, and Natural History. Chapter 5 gives a lot of great information on the many ways corals compete for space. I also wanted to apologize for how I stated my reply on my last post, and that along with food capture corals also use their nematocysts for defense as a way to keep other corals at bay so they may continue to grow and prosper.

Cammie your not talking about that one you got at the frag swap fromriverside coral? I just got a frag of the superman from Jim also, Nice coral. Sorry to hear about that.

leatherman, No worries, Thanks for the info, I'll check out the book!

Yep. That's the one. Never had that happen before. It wasn't right next to anything but I'm sure that's what happened to it. It was covered with slime and didn't recover. I sure hope I can snag another piece of it some day. I tried Mary and Dustin to see if they have more but, haven't had much luck getting in touch with them lately.

I tried Riversides web site and it comes up as a error. That what Mary was giving out at the swap in Bemidji told us to check it out.

Cammie that blows. That was a sweet coral.

I know and I'm still sick about it. I could have kept it, grown it out and shared it with others rather than just putting it in my tank to be preyed upon by my other corals!

Found the culprit by the way and it wasn't what I expected. Caught it red-handed and got a pic. I'll try to post it up soon. It almost took out another chalice but only got one side. For what it's worth, LPS need ROOM!!!!