Banded Serpent

[Jennie]

Yesterday I turned lights out early after checking to make sure everything was ok in the tank. We came in very late last night and I didn't get to turn the lights back on til about noon today (no timer on lights yet). When I reached back to turn them on I noticed the banded serpent quickly move back behind the rocks. Next to where he had been was my torch frag on the sandbed eaten up. After a full blown fit I moved him into the fuge in hopes of saving him from further damage. My question is "did the serpent do this?". The torch was perfectly fine yesterday afternoon when I left (being new to the tank, it's checked a few times a day), but as of this morning was obviously either knocked down or pushed down and eaten. I've never heard of a serpent eating corals, but it was in that exactly same location in the tank as I clicked the lights on. Everything else in the tank looks perfect, as the torch did last evening. Needless to say, it's a sad day here!

 

[Anonymous]

I would say that the serpent probably didn't eat the coral - you finding him near it was likely just chance as he was out exploring cuz the lights were out. However, he may have knocked it down if it wasn't securely placed. 2 IMO things - one get a timer, corals are use to very regular time lines as the sun always rises about the same time at the equator. And 2, put the hammer back where he was (more securely) corals also do not like to be moved around much as it expends precious energy adjusting to new light. Best case scenario a coral should only be moved one time. When you first get it place it on the bottom to aclimate for up to a week to your tank and lights and then place it in its final resting spot and leave it if at all possible. I don't know the specs of your tank, but if you have a lot of light, corals like torches need to be acclimated slowly to that light or they can fail fast, looking perfectly healthy one day and receaded and covered with brown jelly the next. Just a thought - there are of course other possibilities as well?????????