Can someone ID what's going on with this coral?

[giants4pc]

My tank is full of coral-sps,Lps,softies...everything. For the past month, my orange digi has been getting this brown fleshy stuff. The strange thing is that no other coral in the display or plumbed-in 90 frag tank is showing anything similar. I have a close stunner that I thought was doing the damage but stems that are closer are unaffected. I pulled these two pieces out a few minutes ago. They were the only two of the colony showing signs. The rest looks great.

 

[giants4pc]

Nobody with an idea?

 

[trueblackpercula]

It could be a couple reasons why from my experience. Could be lack of flow could also be that the position of it is not getting sufficient lighting and lastly it could be starving and needs to be feed. If all that checks it then look for pest or fish that are nipping. Again if all water test are fine and your tank is able to sustain health acropora then one of the above would be my guess.

 

[giants4pc]

Thanks but flow and lighting are great. No fish nipping.

 

[bigmatt]

Put it back in the water and look closer, looks like you have damsels laying eggs my friend

 

[giants4pc]

Are you serious?? That could explain the randomness of it. Eggs would bleach and kill? My clowns lay eggs all the time but always on rock. Interesting?! What leads you to believe that?

 

[ScottMcN1]

Those are fish eggs for sure. What's happening is one of your fish is clearing off the flesh of the coral and prepping the coral to spawn. I had the same issue with some yellow chromis. There's nothing you can really do short of remove the fish. I tried moving the corals around to see if it would throw them off but they would start on a new one.

As long as the fish stay healthy once they start, they won't stop - part of nature.

 

[ScottMcN1]

Here's a link to the thread.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2387660

And a photo of my spawning issue - you can see where they clear off the sticks for spawning.