Clown Gobies Eat Coral?

An interesting article shwoing evidence of clown gobies eating coral. Or at least a post mortem did.

Clown gobies snack on corals | News | Practical Fishkeeping

 

cool article Phoenix heights
they look so innocent dont they
I wandered off onto the KZ system article - nice shiney SPS corals will divert my attention LOL

Steve

 

Yeah that pic had some awesomely colourful SPS going on!

 

I belive they use SPS branches to lay their eggs on so they may eat the coral once necrosis starts.

 

If not this, they may eat the coral polyps away in order to adhere their eggs to the coral's bare skeleton.

 

Yup, part of what I was thinking as well.

 

They eat polyps and a portion of their diet is bacterioplankton that is caught in SPS coral mucus. It's not all that noticeable because they eat so little. I had a Seriatopa (bird's nest) that was about the size of a soccer ball that had 5 yellows and 3 greens that lived in it. They never left the coral...not even when feeding the tank. That birdsnest was 100% of their diet.

 

Now that would make a cool picture!