When acans attack!

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Jimbo7

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Feb 20, 2008
Messages
1,996
Location
Minneapolis, MN
Anyone ever seen this? I was gone all weekend, came back tonight after work to poke around and take some pictures. Turned a piece around and saw this! Any chance of the favias recovery?

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I had heard that acans could sting or be slightly aggressive, but I had them on the same rack for weeks with no issues. Maybe I accidentally pushed their flesh together and didn't notice. Whats weird is that it didnt seem to come out of the middle of a head, just out of one side of it.
 
This is what is crazy! This was just an hour or two ago when I was taking some pictures before I ate and whatnot. I was really liking how the favia was getting a cool swirl pattern in it too. Should I keep a higher flow on it for the time being? The favia seems like it is sliming or something, maybe its just the damaged tissue.
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Yikes! Thats a dragon soul favia that got it too! Thats my favorite coral. They really explode with color under the right lighting conditions.

Matt
 
Hey Jimbo, I've seen it before. It seems that Acans really store energy or something before the attack cause they don't do anything for ages before it and then KAPOW! If it starts to get bad on the Favia fragging will be nescessary to save the rest.
 
I turned on an extra powerhead today to keep crap off of it. Not really sure what else to do. Don't you need a tile saw to frag favias?
 
Dang. I wonder how it even gets those strands over to the other coral. Pretty crazy, I took an updated picture of the favia yesterday but fell asleep before posting it :/
 
Haha yes, I have had some acans in the past and had this one for weeks at the same proximity with several other corals and this favia. They were all pretty squeezed on a frag rack. I'll think twice next time.
 
Yeah, sweepers are amazing. My bubble sweeps a good 6" around it. I haven't seen that from an Acan before, but now I'm forewarned.
 
Yeah these are only used when the coral is going to attack, unlike sweepers, cause the coral knows it's there to hit. They are a special tentacle called mesenterial filaments.

A whole third of the Acan died off.

Here's that guys whole TOTM story. Very nice tank. (Cmor don't read it, he's got 3 nems. Though they are in a very well kept tank.)
Tank of the Month - December 2004 - Reefkeeping.com
 
I read it. If he still has both anems he can frag them and sell captive raised anemones :)

My LTA took up a ¼ of my tank too before it suddenly died. LTAs have an indeterminate lifespan in the ocean.
 
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