Strange spot on Coral

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mwilliams

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Nov 15, 2010
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Location
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I need help in identifying this spot that has just recently showed up on my Coral and how can I save it?
 

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the white you mean? the center area is dead. the white is also tissue recession. you will need to check parameters- mainly alk and the 3's ...ammonia, ntrite, nitrate..
also temp fluctuation and lighting issues (not properly acclimating).
 
I have had it in the tank for well over 3 months now. The PH was down and I have been doing the buffering for the 4 days that was recommended by my LFS where I go and get my water checked. The center part is what caught my eye this morning. I was not able to see anything yesterday because one of the Ballast had went out and I was out looking for one yesterday and finally found one and put it back on the light late yesterday evening. The white around the edge I thought was normall because I see that on a lot of those type of corals at the LF stores....
Can it be saved? Or is it a goner????
 
i would watch the center, and if the white continues to spread, i would frag it up. in other words, break off the good tissue to stop the recession. the white around the edge is not a big deal as long as it doesn't spread.
that should be a nice orange color. do you think you have enough light over it?
 
Not sure about the light... I have it sitting on the top of the LR closest to the top of the tank. How do you frag it?
 
a monti cap is real easy. you can break it with your hand, or use a dremel for precision cuts. i usually cut them with nail clippers (in this hobby, the same tool is called a "coral cutter"). like this-
IS098Q0LV.jpg
 
btw, sorry to derail the thread for the moment, but in your "my tanks" tab it says you have a sailfin tang in a 44 hex. i was just wondering why. was it fighting with the yellow?
 
Strange spot on the Coral

btw, sorry to derail the thread for the moment, but in your "my tanks" tab it says you have a sailfin tang in a 44 hex. i was just wondering why. was it fighting with the yellow?

Nope they did sometimes have their disagreements but it was not to bad. I put him in the 42Hex tank while treating him for Hole in the Head and I still can't really tell if the tissue is healing or not and I have switched all of his food to what you guys had recommended to me from my other post for "Hole In the Head". He is eating like a pig I probably could put him back in the 55g but at this time I prefer to keep him in the 42 hex.
 
i have a desjardini with the same issue, and have been feeding him all sorts of things from day one. this fish is a fat one too. i am beginning to think there is validity in the theory of stray current or other stressors contributing to this disease.
 
I don't know about the stray current because I have removed him from the main tank so in this tank there would be no stray current or other stressors to stress him out other then being alone. He loves for me to sit beside the tank. I always put my hand on the tank wall and he comes up to it and stays there then swims off and comes right back. He has started to let me touch him a little bit when I am putting the clip into the tank with the Nori in it...
 
a monti cap is real easy. you can break it with your hand, or use a dremel for precision cuts. i usually cut them with nail clippers (in this hobby, the same tool is called a "coral cutter"). like this-
IS098Q0LV.jpg
If I break it with my hands do you break it in the water or can you take it out of the water to break it up? After breaking it up is there anything special that needs to be done afterwards or just lay the pieces on the LR?
 
either one seems to work fine for me. you can take it out if you like. corals can live for long periods out of water.
just make sure when you cut a living piece away from the dead part, you leave some good flesh with the dead part. this may stop your recession. again, not knowing the cause, it's hard to say for sure.

as for the pieces, i would just glue them to rocks in various spots and see how they fare.
 
I went to pick it up this morning and it started crumbling I got a few pieces but I did not keep the bad spot it had gotten bigger over night and when I turned it over I saw those pointy things attached to it just like the one that was on the skelton part of my Frogspawn. I also have noticed there are alot of them on my LR's. They almost remind me of the thorns on the side of the rose stems except for them much skinner then the thorns on the roses.
 
spionid worms? no tube worm is causing the rtn (rapid tissue necrosis) of that montipora. it's something else. parameters, flow, or lighting.
 
Not sure what those things are they are about the size of a needle very skinny and sharp to the point.
 
Strange spot on the Coral

I believe that is what it is I finally found a picture of them that look like the ones in my tank.. along with a short quote/line from underneath the picture that I found.... "The upper edge of this tube may be razor sharp, and may inflict rather nasty cuts." website that I found it on .. www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rs/index.php

It says the Cooperbanded and hermit crabs will eat them however my hermit crabs aren't eating them.... Then it goes on and talks about a a muriatic acid bath works well which I don't think I want to tackle that. What other way can I get rid of them and how do I keep their numbers down.????
 

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they don't need their numbers kept down actually. they aren't hurting anything.
no matter how much i love reefkeeping magazine i must disagree with them on this subject and say that the vermitid's numbers will even out and never present a problem.
in my own experience, i can say that in 10+ different reef tanks, they never cause me any issue, nor populated to the point of trouble.
 
When I get white spots on my monti caps, it is from sand landing and staying. I had to blow it off with the baster, then rearrange the power heads
 
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