zoomster
New member
I'm sorry this is a little long, but I really need expert advice from SPS keepers who have had experience with multiple pests and might diagnose from my best description and the pictures what has suddenly started to kill what was a beautiful reef 4 weeks ago with no problems and fast growing SPS.
I can't seem to get a good shot of the small, but long tentacle things coming out from under my now dying rainbow monti. They have white and black (maybe brown) stripes. They can extend pretty far and seem to always be probing, but never show the rest of their body. There must be 30+ just coming from under the rainbow monti and every day over the last week I'm seeing more throughout my tank.
When I first saw a couple I thought they must be brittle star legs, but that was probably a month ago and now I've got stuff dying and some dead. There's many, many more than there was and I have yet to see a body....just reaching out from under the monti, other sps, and holes in the rock. I've taken probably 200 pics, but they're so small I can't get a good one. The best of all of them is attached. If you look hard you can see them in two of the pics, but the really blue picture is probably clearest and while you're looking, any idea what that sac thing is that it's near in that shot. It was under the big rock with monti and slimer.
The tentacles might be sea spiders, but I can't get a positive id. Now I know that it may be unrelated, but everywhere there is corals dying I see these things. I've been doing this hobby for 17+ years and I've had corals die, but this is a new one to me. I've been very lucky with pests, but not now. I've also attached pictures of some other corals and how they are dying. They seem to turn brown at base and lose polyp extension first. Then the base lifts from where it was encrusted. Then it slowly dies. The montis are slightly different in that they are whitening around the edge and slowly dying that way.
Is it this tentacle thing that's doing it? Is it a sea spider? Is there anything I can do? Please help. I've checked for flatworms, monti eating nudis, red bugs, etc. I don't see them, but then again may not be able to anyway. I've never had this problem.....knock on wood. I searched top and bottom for the nudis, but no luck. Just more striped tentacles.
Again, sorry so long, but I'm desperate to seek answers on this. I really appreciate help on this. Oh and it's not a parameter issue. I'm religious about testing and have been recovering from surgery for 6+ months, so I have time and I test daily or almost daily for all critical parameters and some others. They are fine. This is something else so I need an expert. Thanks so much!
I can't seem to get a good shot of the small, but long tentacle things coming out from under my now dying rainbow monti. They have white and black (maybe brown) stripes. They can extend pretty far and seem to always be probing, but never show the rest of their body. There must be 30+ just coming from under the rainbow monti and every day over the last week I'm seeing more throughout my tank.
When I first saw a couple I thought they must be brittle star legs, but that was probably a month ago and now I've got stuff dying and some dead. There's many, many more than there was and I have yet to see a body....just reaching out from under the monti, other sps, and holes in the rock. I've taken probably 200 pics, but they're so small I can't get a good one. The best of all of them is attached. If you look hard you can see them in two of the pics, but the really blue picture is probably clearest and while you're looking, any idea what that sac thing is that it's near in that shot. It was under the big rock with monti and slimer.
The tentacles might be sea spiders, but I can't get a positive id. Now I know that it may be unrelated, but everywhere there is corals dying I see these things. I've been doing this hobby for 17+ years and I've had corals die, but this is a new one to me. I've been very lucky with pests, but not now. I've also attached pictures of some other corals and how they are dying. They seem to turn brown at base and lose polyp extension first. Then the base lifts from where it was encrusted. Then it slowly dies. The montis are slightly different in that they are whitening around the edge and slowly dying that way.
Is it this tentacle thing that's doing it? Is it a sea spider? Is there anything I can do? Please help. I've checked for flatworms, monti eating nudis, red bugs, etc. I don't see them, but then again may not be able to anyway. I've never had this problem.....knock on wood. I searched top and bottom for the nudis, but no luck. Just more striped tentacles.
Again, sorry so long, but I'm desperate to seek answers on this. I really appreciate help on this. Oh and it's not a parameter issue. I'm religious about testing and have been recovering from surgery for 6+ months, so I have time and I test daily or almost daily for all critical parameters and some others. They are fine. This is something else so I need an expert. Thanks so much!
