Chilipepper Montipora bleaching!

[Sooner]

So, I've had this beautiful chili pepper montipora for about 6 months. It has been growing - actually tripped in size from the frag I had. And two days ago I noticed a little white spot on the edge of it. That white spot has grown in two days to about the size of a quarter! Can it be stopped?!? Is it over?!?!

Nothing has changed as far as the water goes that I can tell. Mag, Calc, Alk are all at good levels.

I really know very little about corals....

 

[rvareef]

do you have any pics?

 

[Sooner]

Yikes...not sure how to post pics here. I have one. Lights are not on, so it's not really crystal clear, but you can see the coral and the shape and size of the bleaching. I could e-mail.

 

[Sooner]

 

[Sooner]

[/IMG]

 

[minus9]

Doesn't look like bleaching to me, but it's hard to tell from the pic? Have you checked for nudi's?

 

[Sooner]

I'm not sure what you mean, "nudi's"?

The bleaching I'm talking about is the whit stuff at about 4:30-5:00 in the kind of V shape. It was green with red spots just a couple days ago and the white patch has gotten larger.

 

[organism]

Wow, that doesn't look like bleaching as much as dying. Nudis are Monitpora-eating nudibranch, they would be under the colony if you have them.

 

[minus9]

Do you have any LPS near by? Anything with sweepers? Favia? Hydnophora? What other sps do you have, if any?

 

[Sooner]

I have a cabbage coral and birds Nest.
Also, brain and trumpet coral. That's all of the hard corals I have.
A bunch of polyps and zoos thuds. Two rose bubble tips.
None of those are anywhere near this.

 

[NaturalReef]

Looks like you still have slow growth on the edges. If it was my coral? I would frag off that section till you reach healthy tissue and do a small water change to replenish. Good lighting, Good flow, Good parameters....monti's in my opinion are bulletproof. I have had frags of sunset, Jedi mind trick, rainbow completely under my rock for months and then placed in good lighting completely recover. They all have taken over my live rock now.

 

[Sooner]

It's strange because it has done so well til now....then out of nowhere this happens with no visible changes!

 

[NaturalReef]

Welcome to the wonderful world of SPS! Just when you think you have it down, they throw you a curve ball

 

[Sooner]

[/IMG]

So, here's an updated pic, 48 hours later. Forgive me, I don't have a lot of experience with hard corals, and thought "Bleaching" meant it was dying. It is definitely dying, but I still cannot tell why. I don't see anything resembling the little nudi's mentioned above. The way it is dying to me suggests some sort of sickness....is that possible?