M. Capricornis Starting to bleach

[cj10488]

well one of my M. Capricornis are starting to bleach.. There is 4 others in my tank that are perfectly fine.. The one that is starting to bleach is my green/purple rim.. It is starting to bleach where I have glue him to a piece of my LR.. It seems to be getting worse by the day and has been going on for about a week... All my levels are perfect as usual.. Everything else in the tank is doing Awesome.. There is 3 M. Digitadas and 4 M. Caps in the tank as well as many other SPS, LPS in the tank.. The only thing I have seen was a hermit that seems to like to "Park" himself on top of the montiporas.. Could this Zebra hermit has bothered the Cap?? Should I try a dip with some Seachem Coral dip? or should I just frag off what hasnt bleached and hope for the best? Or frag it, dip it and cross fingers..

TIA,
James

FYI
temp 80.8f
sg 35ppt
ammonia, nitrate, nitrite 0
Ca 420
Alk 3.23
ph 8.1-8.3 8.1 early am 8.3 late pm.. usually stays at 8.2..

 

[reefrunner69]

The hermit could be irritating it, how long has the cap been glued? Is this a new frag or has it been there awhile and just started bleaching? My initial thoughts right now are predators, nudis, asterina stars, my next thought is STN (slow tissue necrosis), at this point unless it is spreading fast, I would try and discover the cause before fragging, if the bleaching or recession is occurring quickly, definitely frag it dip it and put it in a different location in your aquarium.

 

[cj10488]

the frag has been in there about a month and has been glued about that long as well.. Other than the Hermit nothing else has ever been on it that I have ever noticed... It seemed like the bleaching started off slow but seems to be going a bit faster now..

TIA,
James

 

[cj10488]

Ok so I was watching it and this Am the lights came on and it looked a bit more bleached.. I decided that I would try and dip it in Seachems Reef Dip for 5 mins according to the directions... My next step I plan on placing it in a different area of the tank just in case.. If it still continues to bleach I will frag what I can in hopes of saving the Frag... Its kinda a bummer about this frag as it seems to be one of the faster growing frags that I have.. I can nearly see new growth daily... If this sounds like a good plan or if you think that I should just frag it now Please let me know... I will take a picture after the dip is complete and you can judge for yourself as to what oyu would do as well..

TIA,
James

 

[cj10488]

ok here are a few pics..


James

 

[reefrunner69]

Sounds like a plan Mine seems to be doing something similar, started yesterday, I am at the same poing, if it is still bleaching tomorrow, I'm fragging it.

 

[cj10488]

if it is still bleaching tomorrow, I'm fragging it.

Same Here LOL.. Sorry to hear about yours as well.. I know that I can possibly save a few nice pieces.. Interesting that both our Caps are doing this.. Let me know how yours is doing tomorrow and I shall do the same.. I ended up dipping it for 10mins in the Seachems Reef dip which seems to me be iodine but...

TIA,
James

 

[reefrunner69]

Mine looks less like bleaching than physical injury and the stress induced bleaching. I am unaware where the injury came from though. From your pics it looks less like "bleaching" than some tissue recession. If that were mine, I would go ahead and frag off the bleached area just a bit ahead of the recession. Should stop it, unfortunately we may never know what caused it.

 

[cj10488]

Ok I took your advice and went ahead and fragged it.. I ended up with 2 frags just as I thought.. Here are the After Pics of my Life Saving Frag event..


James

 

[reefrunner69]

Well, you showed me yours so I'll show you mine. I have changed my mind though, it appears to be stress related, I think it might be getting burned by the higher UV in the new bulb, I'm going to try slowing down the light acclimation for the new bulb and see what happens.