Fighting conch goo explosion?!

lba4590 · Jul 14, 2021

This is the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. A hermit crab jumped on my conchs back checking out his shell I guess, and the conch went wild jumping and flailing around to get him off. Within seconds he released a MASSIVE amount of stringy goo everywhere. All my fish are freaking out, I’m freaking out, it’s sticking to everything.. corals, fish, rocks. What is this? Some kind of defense mechanism? I have pics but they really didn’t pick it up well at all. My entire tank is filled with strands of goo.

N.Sreefer · Jul 14, 2021

I have never seen this happen with mine but I seen this https://www.ultimatereef.net/threads/fighting-conch-slime.220300/
The person in that post didn't say it killed anything or nuked the tank so hopefully its just a physical defense not chemical. Still may irritate the coral even if its non toxic. Have you tried netting it out? Might stick to the net and be easier than siphoning.

lba4590 · Jul 14, 2021

N.Sreefer said:
I have never seen this happen with mine but I seen this https://www.ultimatereef.net/threads/fighting-conch-slime.220300/
The person in that post didn't say it killed anything or nuked the tank so hopefully its just a physical defense not chemical. Still may irritate the coral even if its non toxic. Have you tried netting it out? Might stick to the net and be easier than siphoning.

Thank you!! So weird, seems like a lot of people have conchs but haven’t ever heard of this. Glad I’m at least not the only one. Everyone seems fine now, including the angry conch ha. I netted some out but there was SO much of it. So crazy to watch, it was so fast.. wish I was able to catch it on video.