Fragging Mushrooms burnt SPS?

[nevermind]

Pics first:

This started after I took a scissor to some red mushrooms a few weeks ago. Not RTN or STN, random spots on top of the corals that starts to slime up then lots of filament then burnt like this. The green sps in the front got it first, lots of filaments for a few hours right after the shroom fragging then patches of semi dead flesh. Since then, 2 other pieces have started to look this way, the efflo in back on the top pic started just last week. All the SPS are very close to where I snipped off the shrooms.

All water parameters are fine, nitrate is at 20 but its been like that for a long time. Alk was at 11 so I thought it might be alk burn (my alk is usually at 9) so I lowered it to 7, that was before the efflo started to look like this. I been doing more water changes and feeding more, nothing else have changed. It isn't red bugs, had those before so I know what to look for. Not flat worms either, blowing at the dead spots didn't show any flying off. This is also happening to an encrusting monti that was near another shroom that I cut. Plus I haven't bought anything new for a year and half.

The spots are not totally dead, well maybe the table acro in front is by now, they just looks like I took a tooth brush and scrubbed it really hard. So anyone else think that bits and pieces of the shroom burnt the coral or could it be something else?

 

[tmz]

Interesting. I've seen acro tissue die when touching or very close to discoma before . Maybe they gave off some alelopathic compound when you cut them

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

shrooms are definitely a possible culprit.

if water conditions are allowed to slide environmental conditions will favor the corallimorphs. This can magnify the stress your SPS are seeing.

If I didn't know any better from your post I'd also suggest the possibility of AEFW's.

 

[nevermind]

Some of those spots are starting to heal up, the flesh are not totally gone after all. What worries me though is that spots of it are still happening to other corals or at different spots on the same coral even though its been a few weeks since I did anymore cutting.

I actually did buy some new fishes and some SPS but I'm pretty sure those are not the culprit. The fishes went into the tank a few weeks before this, and the SPS went into the tank after I cut the shrooms (I was cutting them up to make room) so it couldn't be red bugs or flatworms. I noticed right after cutting some of the shrooms, one of the acro started to slime up real bad and continued throughout the night. Whats weird is that it happened so quickly, I thought it was going to STN at first but it never spread. So far none of the new corals have gotten burnt yet and everything else seems fine. The non-affected parts of the corals are perfectly healthy, polyps are out, flesh are still thick, and colors are good.

I know the constant rubbing of shrooms against SPS will cause that area to die (you can see it on the Bonsai in the 2nd pic) but those never spread as long as the SPS is healthy. I need to get rid of all these shrooms in the tank to make room but now I'm afraid to cut them. Killing them off with kalk or vinegar seems like a waste but I might be force to do that.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

certain "not reef safe" starfish will eat your shrooms

(ie: chocolate chip star etc.)

avoid fragging corals inside a DT if possible- remove them first

 

[jsteele]

When I first set up my 30g I had a chocolate chip star in my tank with red mushrooms for a good 4 months before it ate my feather duster. The star never touched the the mushrooms.