What is this pest that was under my chalice coral? Chalic coral was completely destroyed in about one week. Found this under it when I took it out of the tank.
What is this pest that was under my chalice coral? Chalic coral was completely destroyed in about one week. Found this under it when I took it out of the tank.
Yep, those are regular, basic bristleworms that are either hiding under the nice cover, or have come to eat the dead flesh.
Chalices just do that sometimes if you upset them sufficiently. They can go from looking okay to a heap of goop with shocking speed, particularly if they get damaged in shipping. Which they often do- their sharp skeletons cut them up from the inside.
(Edit: don't know if yours was recently shipped. It just came to mind as something I've seen them disintegrate from. You get a chalice that looks a bit damaged, think "oh, it'll probably heal up fine, LPS are good at that", and then, no, there it goes.)
Agreed that Bristleworms are not the cause. Could we see the coral itself, also is it absolutely dead or there are still bits of flesh? I had a chalice that was almost entirely dead but it had small bit flesh that has begun recovering.