Do Xenia's sting other corals?

[RobertN]

Has anyone observed Xenia's stinging and injuring other corals that they were touching? I had a nice size purple Monti cap and some Xenia started growing on a rock next to it; eventually some of the Xenia were touching one edge along 1" or so of the Monti, but I paid no attention to it. The next thing I know, there's a white (dead) patch on the Monti about 2" x 2" right next to where the Xenia were touching that Monti's edge. And within a week or two, the whole Monti is now about dead (almost all white). Anyone seen this or heard of this before? Thanks

 

[Katrina71]

Mine stung some palys, but they just moved out of the way. I didn't notice any die off.

 

[HB AL]

Haven't seen Xenia sting when growing around a monti cap. Even if it did the whole monti shouldn't be dying just the fringes where the Xenia touched it but I haven't encountered it stinging corals.

 

[RobertN]

It seems that some folks do think it can sting. I didn't know that before a couple people told me they had that experience with them. And after seeing what has happened, I don't know what else it could be, based on the location of the Xenia and the initial dead spot on the Monti.....and then how the dead area spread. Someone at a local LFS said they thought it could have caused injury on the edge which led to infection and then the infection spread because I didn't break off the infected portion while it was still very localized. I was curious to hear if there was some corroboration from others here at R2R.