Bite marks? On Sinularia

[djf91]

Hey everyone,
Some time in the past week I noticed what appear to maybe be bite marks on a large green Sinularia colony I have. They only appear in this one spot. Otherwise the coral seems perfectly healthy. Has anybody seen anything like this before?

 

[Pistondog]

Are you sure they are not pests, like flatworms?

 

[Tcook]

You can almost make out a bat head on a few of them. Get in there and see if they scrape off.

 

[djf91]

Are you sure they are not pests, like flatworms?

The spots are not pests. Maybe flatworms caused them but the white spots are a part of the coral. I also haven’t seen any flatworms like Acoel that sometimes rest on coral.

 

[Tcook]

Are they raised or depressed?

 

[mfinn]

Not sure what the op's picture shows, but there are nudibranchs that eat leather corals. But they will usually stay in one spot for a while and definitely make a crater that shows damage.

 

[djf91]

Not sure what the op's picture shows, but there are nudibranchs that eat leather corals. But they will usually stay in one spot for a while and definitely make a crater that shows damage.

Interesting, I’ll keep a lookout for those.

 

[djf91]

Are they raised or depressed?

Pretty much seem to be even with the skin. Maybe very slightly depressed.

 

[djf91]

Well I found who was leaving those bite marks. Both of my Blue hippo tangs are picking at it, and pretty aggressively I just witnessed. For the the past month I’ve been trying to figure it why this coral has been going down hill, now I think I know.