Montipora bleaching in center, spreading

[paul_111]

Hi All;

I've had a nice nodulating monti for quite a few years now. In the past 2 years or so, it has gotten really large (>12" across).

About 2 weeks ago, a white patch appeared in the center of the colony. It has started to turn brown/algae, so I know it's dead. It is also expanding. I know to save the colony I will need to frag it, but I want to know why it happened.

I started biopellets about 3 weeks prior -- could that have done it? I've been trying to feed more and dosing aa's.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Paul

 

[AndyH5512]

Montis will bleach if you have an alk swing. Have you tested to see where your alk is and if it is fluctuating?

 

[coralreefhq]

Have you checked the colony for nudibranches?

Those nudis start from the center then move outwards.
They lay eggs underneath or between crevices of the montis.

 

[mutateddogbone]

what do you run your alk at on the biopellets? how large is your system and how much biopellets do you run? how many fish do you have and how often do you feed. I ran into this problem about a month ago, turns out i was running too many pellets and lost a few SPS, cuz the ammount of pellets in half and havnt had an issue since.

 

[ostrow]

It is one of the two of these, for certain.

 

[paul_111]

Montis will bleach if you have an alk swing. Have you tested to see where your alk is and if it is fluctuating?

I will check. I hope to have an alk doser online this week.

Thanks!
Paul

 

[paul_111]

Have you checked the colony for nudibranches?

Those nudis start from the center then move outwards.
They lay eggs underneath or between crevices of the montis.

I looked last night, but couldn't see anything. I'll keep looking.

Thanks,
Paul

 

[paul_111]

what do you run your alk at on the biopellets? how large is your system and how much biopellets do you run? how many fish do you have and how often do you feed. I ran into this problem about a month ago, turns out i was running too many pellets and lost a few SPS, cuz the ammount of pellets in half and havnt had an issue since.

It's currently ~3.5 meq alk.

I have a 120 gal w/30 gal sump, and I'm using ~125ml of bio pellets -- that's 1/3 of the recommended amount. I wanted to use less due to the stories I've read about stripping too much out of the water too fast.

I have 6 fish, (4 of them are blennies/gobies). I try to feed the fish every day, but usually miss a day per week. I feed the corals something at least 5-6 days a week -- mysis, reef chili, DT's, etc.

My other sps look ok. I have a poci and hydnophora (lps?) which are large and several sps frags which are exhibiting good color and PE. My LPS and softies are ok.

Thanks,
Paul

 

[newbie916]

Look for the sneaky nudi's. They look like cute little feathers, but they're evil little predators. They'll leave egg sacs under your monti's and hopefully you don't find any because the only way to get rid of them is to dip, brush, and break up your colonies. I had to do it several months ago and throw away a bunch of my montis and start with frags again

 

[SaltwaterAdict]

Look for the sneaky nudi's. They look like cute little feathers, but they're evil little predators. They'll leave egg sacs under your monti's and hopefully you don't find any because the only way to get rid of them is to dip, brush, and break up your colonies. I had to do it several months ago and throw away a bunch of my montis and start with frags again

That's unfortunate, sneaky lil nudi's. Is there a way of preventing this by dipping?

 

[paul_111]

I have dipped all recent sps and zoa additions in Lugol's, and this is the only monti I have.

Hopefully it's due to alk instability.

Thanks,
Paul

 

[coralreefhq]

You may want to dip the coral in revive or coral rx.

Iodine isn't enough. Goodluck.