Strange holes in corals?

[HM3105]

Hey all,

 

So a few weeks back my war coral had what I thought was some detritus stuck to it but when I grabbed my turkey baster and sucked it our it turned out to be a hole in the flesh of the coral. At the time I thought it was a one off event. shortly thereafter, small section of the coral vanished overnight and the wound looked the same. It was like a pile of detritus was stuck to the coral that I now realize was its flesh.

 

So this evening, as I was doing my weekly WC, I noticed two more of these random holes in two of my chalices. Exact same scenario, grabbed turkey baster, sucked away gunk, nothing but skeleton underneath. I took some pictures but I'm still learning to use this camera so please forgive they aren't great.

 

Hole in coral by mike.vend

 

Hole in coral 2 by mike.vend

 

hole in coral 3 by mike.vend

 

So anyone seen something like this before? I've been keeping a close eye on my tank at night as something has also been picking off my zoas but I haven't seen any predators. The only things I've seen are amphipods, some pretty large with a brown coloration. I'm trying not to jump to conclusions that it's the amphipods but I'm running out of ideas.

[FlowerMama]

I had amphipods eat my fresh new Aquascaper zoas so I think it's very possible if they're hungry. And yours corals look to be all healthy, as mine were as some postulated they would only eat decaying or sick corals.

[amphipod]

If an amphipod of some species isn't getting sufficient food from scavenging desperate measures will follow, often predation and cannibalism. But knowing amphipods they wouldn't normally leave the open wound like that to rot, they will often gather on the necrotic buffet and keep working at it. It could be something else you don't see, but keep watching, and supplement more food in the sand bed, if that doesn't help there is a whole new window of possibilities, negative possibilities.

What is all in your cuc?

Any shrimp by any chance?