Coral Spawning 2022

Surprise blue eggs! What are they? Click on the below photos to see all the little details.

Eunicid Polychaete (worm) & its eggs

Coral Spawning is one big eating fest, you never know what you are going to discover. While I was watching the Smooth Flower Coral (Eusmilia fastigiata) spawning, I noticed that there was a small blueish mass on a couple of the polyps. Some close up shots later revealed that a Eunicid Polychaete (worm) was being eaten by the spawning Smooth Flower Coral! There are two coral polyps and the worm seems to be stretched out between them along with its beautiful blue eggs. It seems that the two polyps are competing to see which one is going to get to eat the worm and its eggs. The one on the left seems to be winning! Notice how the worm and eggs are inside its polyp.

The line of black dots are eyespots of the ‘epitoke’ (reproductive phase of the worm), these appear on each side of the body and this is only during the epitoke phase, the adult worm does not have these rows of eyespots. Apparently, epitokes can often be eaten up corals and other little creatures. The eggs start off being internal but then the worm will swim up to the water column to release the eggs or the sperm. (Many thanks to Leslie H. Harris for providing this information). Amazing nature!