Euphyllia spawning(?)

["Umm, fish?"]

Early to middle of last month I began to notice a lot of odd localized flouescent ... spots ... on one of my euphyllias. The spots would be there one night and the next day, they might be there (or maybe not). A few days later, I would see them somewhere else.

I took some pictures. These are with the 20,000K halides on. No flash, as I thought the flash might spoil the effect.





This one I took when I only had the Nightsea flashlight and glasses. I hand-held the flashlight and with my other hand held the glasses up in front of the lens. With my other hand, I snapped the photo.



As you can see, these areas just glow.

["Umm, fish?"]

I later realized that the flash doesn't affect the flourescence that much and it makes the photos much clearer.

["Umm, fish?"]

Two nights ago, I looked into the tank and saw this:









Ten minutes later, I couldn't find the hole at all and almost couldn't figure out which tentacle it had been. Here's what it looked like (when I finally found it):





Here's what it looked like last night when I finally got the real Nightsea gear hooked up:



Thanks!

[c1truz]

i dont know what that is but what type of camera do you have?

["Umm, fish?"]

It's a Canon 20D with a 100mm/f2.8 macro lens.

[danch]

Wow. Nice pics, and very cool if it is a spawn.

[drummereef]

Those pics are insane! Nice.

["Umm, fish?"]

Thanks!

[beelzebob]

i think that those are some hardcore LPS XXX pics.

but then again, its astounding how much i really dont know.

PS. sure you're not just showing off your camera?

["Umm, fish?"]

Hey man, I'm just the photographer. Talk to the coral about showing off. Right in front of a window. With the lights on.

Thanks!

["Umm, fish?"]

My euphyllia was looking ... shall we say "ripe" tonight. (I have pictures, but I haven't processed them yet.) I pulled it out and placed it into a spawning chamber (okay, some tupperware) to (a) try to induce spawning and (b) try to see if I can get anything to settle with a certain lack of predators. As soon as I got it into the container, gobs of white were floating around.

I pulled some out to possibly preserve and send to the experts and pulled one out so I could put it under my microscope. Here's the best of the pictures so far:

Full photo, reduced to 2 x 3:



One area at 100%:



And enlarged to 200%:



Thanks!

["Umm, fish?"]

I looked at the sample with flourescence: the nasty white stuff flouresced very, very green. The brown dots, however, flouresced very red (like algae does). I have a theory on that but, as you might expect, it requires some visual aids.

Earlier this evening, and the reason I became increasing convinced that tonight was spawn night, I started noticing "tracks" on the (maybe inside of the) tentacles of the coral. I had seen them before on isolated tentacles, but tonight almost every one had them. It occured to me that it really looked like someone had taken a lawnmower through the coral's zooxanthellae. I also saw a whole bunch of black dots under the whites of the tentacle-tips.

Enough talk, on to the photos:

















It's my theory that, if it is larvae that I saw in the sample tonight, the larvae were spending the last few hours before release munching their way through the parent's zooxanthallae stores. I have no idea how I would test it, but that's my theory.

Thanks!

["Umm, fish?"]

Wow! There was also this tentacle that looked about to burst:

[wysiwyg]

OUTSTANDING! (IMHO)

["Umm, fish?"]

Thanks, wysiwyg!

The stress from being moved last night doesn't seem to have slowed things down too much. Here are some pictures from tonight:





Meanwhile, on the _other_ side of the tank ... :

["Umm, fish?"]

New developments!













Thanks!

[danch]

Wow! Can't wait to see what happens next. Thanks for the update and the incredible pics!

["Umm, fish?"]

Thanks, danch! Me, too. Though I'm starting to get a little scared.