Mystery of buried Sunburst Coral solved

[SeanH]

I took down a couple 150g fish-only tanks at a sushi bar last week. There were some pretty nice fish in the salt tank - nothing really special, but healthy. One of the fish was a Fiji blue damsel which I thought would be a nice splash of color in my reef so I tossed it in. A day or so later I noticed my sunburst coral was covered with aggregate, reached in with the gripper, blew it off with the Koralia and put it back. I checked to see if I had done anything to cause a severe scouring and couldn't find anything wrong. Two days later, the coral was covered with aggregate again, so I moved it away from the rock wall to a more open area. That seemed to do the trick and the coral was actually happier in that position anyway, evidenced by a much more active polyp extension.

 

I was watching the tank today and the damsel dropped in to the crevice and did a quick tail shake which sent aggregate flying all over the place, digging a pit in the substrate where the coral had been. He/she was also backing in and out of the holes in the live rock next to that area. I'm not familiar with the behavior of these damsels - what is this fish doing, exactly? I've seen clownfish scour pits in aggregate, which I assumed was a nesting behavior, but this damsel is a single fish of this species.

[Coral Hind]

It is probably just digging out a cave to live in.

[zygote2k]

how is it that you were taking down tanks at a sushi bar?

[SeanH]

how is it that you were taking down tanks at a sushi bar?

 

 

I was hungry?