Most AMAZING thing I've witnessed in hobby (PIC)

[Tangwich]

Will he choke?: Part 2

Got home and saw this. My dendro had itself a $14 dinner as it somehow ate my newly acquired sixline wrasse, I'm still wondering how this happened. Any ideas? :eek2: :( :mad:

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc159/dee1queen/DSC00515.jpg

[bradleyj]

That is amazing, I had a simular event only it was with my elegance.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v714/tileman/Canon%20XSL/IMG_0898.jpg

[sixspeed]

did it try to steal a piece of food from the dendro?

[MazdaSPD3]

Consider it a blessing. I absolutely HATE how aggressive they can be.


<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13445978#post13445978 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tangwich
Will he choke?: Part 2

Got home and saw this. My dendro had itself a $14 dinner as it somehow ate my newly acquired sixline wrasse, I'm still wondering how this happened. Any ideas? :eek2: :( :mad:

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc159/dee1queen/DSC00515.jpg

[Tangwich]

Bradley, that is pretty crazy too, but I'm just surprised seeing as how small the dendro is. I can't believe it opened up that wide to get the fish in.

Sixspeed, I don't think so because I hadn't fed them yet when this had already happened. I had just got home when I noticed this.

Mazda, this little guy was actually doing a great job of taking care of my pyramid snail problem. He was also leaving all the other fish completely alone too. That little guy will be missed, at least on my part.:(

[Tangwich]

Now the dendro has decided to open up and let the sexy shrimp share in his great big meal.

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc159/dee1queen/DSC00521.jpg

[R.W.]

I love that pic. Definitely Something that you dont see often.

[AuroraDrvr]

More likely the Sixline died/was dying and the Dendro was there to reap the benefits of a free meal.

[Tangwich]

Sorry AuroraDrvr, but that can't be it. When I left less than two hours before this happened, the sixline was active and healthy, hunting and moving about.

[AuroraDrvr]

Sorry, but there is no way a healthy six-line would not be able to escape a Dendro's (modest at best) sting.

[Tangwich]

Let's see, completely healthy sixline that's actively hunting and eating just dies out of nowhere for no apparent reason and just coincidentally happens to land in the mouth of the dendro, all within the time span of two hours...yeah I'm sure that was it Aurora :rolleye1:

[Tangwich]

I'm not saying I know what happened because obviously I don't...but saying it was dying and the dendro was there to "catch it" is pretty far-fetched IMO.

[Tangwich]

I'm curious to know what BradleyJ thinks about AuroraDrvr's theory about corals eating fish since he went through the same thing????

[AuroraDrvr]

BradleyJ's fish was long dead (atleast at the time of photo). You can see the remains were already starting to deteriorate.

[jlo0218]

Actually, I agree with AuroraDrvr

I had some Acans eat my dying fish. I thought the fish was healthy, moving along... just a couple hours earlier. Then I saw my cleaner shrimp picking on something, and it turned out to be the fish. The shrimp was moving the dead fish around, and was caught by the Acan.

So it might not have floated coincidentally on that coral, but something else might've brought it to the dendro...

All I'm saying is that there's no way that a six-line wrasse would get caught by a dendro unless it is already dead.

[seapug]

AVATAR!

[Amoore311]

I agree there is no way a Dendro is going to catch a healthy fish.

Regardless of what you saw just 2 hours earlier.... something happened to that fish other than the Dendro.

It's still a pretty awesome thing to catch on camera, I would assume the dendro will just let it go though. Occasionally when mine grab a piece of krill thats too large they will just release it once they realize it's just to big for them to swallow.

[revaltion131]

Well I do believe the OP. There was a post a couple of months ago on NR where a hairy mushroom caught a perfectly healthy clown. There were also others who reported similar happenings. Unforntunately, I can't seem to remember which section to search for the thread in, but it was very interesting. I'd say that it can happen, but it is very rare and the fish had to be pretty stupid to get snatched.

[stunreefer]

Whatever happened to him, thats one of the craziest photos I've seen to date!

[ed4]

Is it just me or do Dendro's pack a nasty punch w/ its nemocysts?

Once, my Purple tang (accidentally?) bushed up against one of my Dendro heads. It defintely freaked the tang out. When he bolted, the sticky tentacles stuck to the side of the tang, and was dragged off its ledge, before it dropped on my sandbed.

The OP's story is extremely unlikely, but nevertheless possible. That came out wrong, rare situation & outcome but believeable IMO.

[ed4]

In trying to see what the limits are for my LPS, I feed exceedlingly larger pieces of silversides...

Well, my largest Dendro head stayed closed and a bit receeded for a week before it started to open again. This was after I fed it a 1" chunk of silverside.

[chrisqueenz]

Wow, there's something you dont see everyday!

[Sheol]

I agree, I think I might make that pic my Avatar!
BTW, some mushrooms specialize in catching clowns. Not my clown though, who actively hosts in my Rhodactis, but comparing that to this Dendro situation might be misleading. We'll never really know for sure, except the out come was the same, either way.

Matthew

[reefer1024]

Don't underestimate what a sting from a coral can do to a small healthy fish. I cant say what happened for sure, but I can share a story with you.

I once had a perfectly healthy Brazilian flameback angel. I was cleaning the tank and spooked the fish and for some reason he darted right into a frogspawn. As soon as the fish touched the frogspawn the angel went limp and the frogspawn started pulling it in. It took me several seconds to get the top off the tank and by that time I did the angel was being eaten head first. I pulled the unconscious fish out of the coral. It looked dead, but after several minutes of me holding it in front of a powerhead to get water into its gills it recovered and lived several more years.

[revaltion131]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13448783#post13448783 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Sheol
I agree, I think I might make that pic my Avatar!
BTW, some mushrooms specialize in catching clowns. Not my clown though, who actively hosts in my Rhodactis, but comparing that to this Dendro situation might be misleading. We'll never really know for sure, except the out come was the same, either way.

Matthew

I don't remember seeing that tidbit come it. That's pretty interesting, and it makes sense.

[cwoods8]

Here's my hypothesis........

1) sexy shimp hosting the dendro........

2) sixline wants to eat sexy shrimp.....

3) sexy shrimp lures him in and hovers over the nemocysts....

4) sixline goes for the attack head first, shrimp jumps off at last second.....

5) dendro stings sixline to all heck......captures him......

6) swallows him halfway....

7) sexy shrimp is on top claiming victory and letting the sixline hear it!:D

[reefer1024]

^ mystery solved

[ed4]

Nice, now we can close the books on this one :)

[pledosophy]

Being that clever is very sexy, especially for a shrimp.

[ento-reefer]

I had a silimilar thing happen to my little clown goby. He was perfectly healthy one minute and a meal for my plate coral the next. I posted these photos on NR a while back. I had quite a few people tell me that the goby must have been sick, but I don't believe that was the case.

Sorry for your loss.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/186899_EMA3124goby_top.JPG

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/186899_EMA3109goby_far.JPG

[Sheol]

LOL A Femme fatale Sexy shrimp!

Matthew

[Tangwich]

Thanks everyone who chimed in...I still don't know what could have happened but I wouldn't be surprised if Cwoods8 said really did happen as the sexy shrimp is always very close to the dendro.
Now, can anyone make it into an avatar for me or advise me as to how I can make that picture my avatar?

[Fade]

Take it to the lounge they will resize it for you.

[Tangwich]

ok, great, thanks Fade.

[AuroraDrvr]

EDIT: Posted in your Lounge Thread, too keep this thread clean.

[Tangwich]

great, thanks for the help AuroraDrvr...I appreciate it.

[mandynm]

I've never seen anything like that. Crazy picture. At least you got to see it and weren't looking all over for the fish wondering what happened to it.

[euod]

Amazing. Now, maybe that is how all my wrasses disappeared.

[Tangwich]

Mandynm, that's exactly what I was thinking...glad I actually saw it because I would have gone crazy looking for the fish.

Euod, anything's possible in this hobby, as you can see.

I'm actually kind of excited. Was just asked to give consent to have the pictures documented in Reefkeeping Magazine.

[backfish]

That is just crazy! Did it digest it most of the way or end up spitting it out mostly whole later?

[Tangwich]

Digested part of it and spit out the other part. Damn anorexic coral. lol

[backfish]

Thats really neat- I have heard simular things for other corals when the food is comaratively large for the polyp. I wonder if they get enough nutrients that it is no longer worth further effort or what?

[Tangwich]

Not sure backfish, but it was quite interesting and disturbing all at the same time, to watch the fish inside the dendro.

[topher oner]

man I wish I took a pic of when my bubble coral ate my true perc... it looked just like your pic but with the head out instead...

$40 dinner... sigh*

[Tangwich]

sorry to hear that topher oner..i guess we must expect the unexpected in this hobby because as much research as i did on this fish and coral, i would never have expected or even heard that such a thing could occur.

[topher oner]

isn't that the truth!

What was mean yet very, very entertaining was seeing the look my niece had on her face... lol. (i'm smirking and keeping my evil laughter to myself as I type in my office)

She's a huge Nemo fan and she just walked into the room at the wrong time...

"Uncle Chris, what's wrong with Nemo? Why is he in the pink bubbles like that?"

"ummm.... he's taking a bubble bath???"

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

[Tangwich]

:lol:

[kdblove_99]

Dang didnt know that was possible. cool pic:)

[timrandlerv10]

Wow. I'm going to feed my office mate's dendro a silverside tomorrow and see what happens. Irrelevant 'how' it got in there, the fact that the timing was such that it was caught on film is the amazing part...imagine all the cool stuff we DONT see each day!

PS--your dendro is bulimic--throws it up--not anorexic. MINE are anorexic...they dont eat ANYTHING! :[

[Tangwich]

yeah, what you said Tim...lol

[coop47]

Did you happen to take an 'after' pic of what the spit out fish looked like? I'm curious how much that dendro actually managed to gain by its super-gulp.

I had a baby (less than 3" head-to-tail) fuzzy dwarf lion do something similar years ago. Not nearly as shocking since lionfish regularly try to gulp down anything around them, ime. But it was still pretty surprising to come home to my little lionfish with ~5" of engineer goby hanging out of his mouth.

When he finally spit it out two days later, the goby's head was down to just the skull, but the rest of the goby looked nearly still-alive. I wish I still had my photos from back then... :(

[Tangwich]

Hey Coop, no, I didn't get a chance to take of pic of the fish as I was running late to work and just wanted to get the fish out before it caused an ammonia spike. It was in the morning and the lights were still out as well. I can tell you that there was a good sized chunk of flesh missing from the fish so I'm sure the dendro had itself a nice filet mignon dinner the night before..lol

[ed4]

Lucky you! At least yours can eat in peace.

My Fire Shrimp violently steals food from my dendros.

[Tangwich]

That's funny Ed4, I never see my Fire Shrimp, even during feeding time, but I do see him hiding behind rocks and moving around so I know he's there..

[VengefulSakhmet]

Simply...wow. Reminds me of a snake unhinging its jaw.

[Tangwich]

Vengeful, That's the same thing it reminded me of when I figured out what had happened. However, this snake bit off more than it could chew..

[ed4]

To each (tank), their own.

Tangwich, my dendros don't take down fish :)

That pic is by far the best pic I've recently seen! I'm almost tempted to ask you for a "license" so I can also use it as an avatar.

[Tangwich]

Thanks Ed4 and feel free to use it. Just don't forget to give credit where credit is due :D j/k...but I'm liking that avatar, what I believe is an S4, correct?

[basser1]

Tangwich..... Your story and pic is awesome. I was very interested since I have 2 colonies of dendros in my tank! I have a pic of my giant dendro with baby polyps. I had fed mysis and one of the babies tried to eat a whole mysis. It was so stretched out, you could see the shrimp through him. Not quite as dramatic as yours though!


http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/2559/hpim2151cx6.jpg

[Tangwich]

Great picture Basser1. Yes Dendrophyllia is one of my favorite corals and I love watching it eat, sometimes it eats more mysis than even my fish do. Is yours a slow grower as mine is? I have had mine for about a year and all it has grown is two baby heads..

[Wind]

i wonder how too.

[topher oner]

:D I like wind's avatar! :D

[iCon31]

I second that topher oner!!!

[payyourtoll]

seeing his eye in the first pic is verrrrry weird. GREAT pic

[Amoore311]

Adam Blundell use your pic @ a presentation he gave to my reef club this passed weekend.

Great Job again capturing this kind of thing and sharing with all of us.

[ziyaadb]

fantastic pic

[Tangwich]

payyourtoll - weird would be a great word to describe the entire situation when it happened.

Amoore - thanks for the info, i'm glad the picture has served a purpose as it was a pleasure showing it to you guys...

ziyaadb - thanks, i just wish i had a better camera to capture all the details on the photograph

[johnnybravo234]

Oh snap! Maybe the sixline was swiming around in a a state of ataxia after being stung by something else then stuck his face in dendro. Love the avatar.. HA

[Zoos]

Tangwich and his dendro sixlinewich. :)

[Amoore311]

Put some text on the pixture

"I'm In Your Dendros, Stealing Your Foods"

[Tangwich]

you guys are funny.

[ed4]

I'll never tire myself looking at that picture!

I hereby declare this The Reef Central Picture of the Year!

[Tangwich]

WOW, that's a serious honor Ed, I would like to thank the academy and the dendro that made this all possible..funny thing is that to this date, that dendro is the first, single most "expensive" coral that I have bought. Has grown two baby heads and I love its PE. Has gone from a 28g nano cube to my 225g to my 34g RSM and soon when I sell my RSM, will be going back into my 225g...very hardy coral.