Montipora Capricornis problem

[ukmarks123]

Hello everyone. I have a small but seemingly healthy beautiful deep red brown Monti Cap. I have only had it about 3 months and about a month ago it started growing nicely. It has always had amazing polyp extension. Yesterday I decided to get down and dirty with my turkey baster to clean my rocks inside and out. Of course some debris landed on the Monti which has happened before. No big deal I believe as long as you blow it off. So that's what I did. I blew off the debris with the turkey baster and wherever I did that the polyps retracted. It was almost like I was blowing the color off the Monti. I'd never seen that before. Just to make sure I wasn't seeing things I tried it again on another area and I could clearly see the polyps were retracting. I wasn't overly concerned but it's been over 24 hours now and they haven't come back. The untouched portion of the coral is looking normal. Is it normal for the polyps on a Monti Cap to stay retracted for so long? Thank you

 

[ukmarks123]

Bump. Anyone?

 

[GhostCon1]

Polyps always retract in reaction to external stimuli, but usually come back out later.

However you said it seemed like you were blowing the color off... how hard did you baste it? You didn't slough off the tissue did you?

Post the best pic you can.

 

[ukmarks123]

Here is the best pic I can get. A few Polyps have definitely come back hence the spotted brown appearance of the white patch. I'm still concerned though as its been about 35 hours now since it happened.

 

[SaltyWalter]

That looks like you blew the flesh off, not the polyps. The polyps are contained within coralites, small holes in the Skelton, while a tissue covers the entire skeleton, which I what looks missing. Not good tho.

 

[ukmarks123]

Will that kill the coral? Will it regenerate? Anything I can do for it?

 

[minus9]

It should recover over time, given that you have stable water parameters? The living tissue is thin and if you give it a direct, narrow blast, you will damage it. My cap was infested with nudi's and after a 12 minute dip and overzealous blasting with a baster, it was devastated. It's since recovered and now I see growth on a weekly basis. I'll try to find some before and after pix. You don't need to blast it to remove debris, use a small pipet in the future.

 

[ukmarks123]

Thanks for the info and advice minus9. I really appreciate it. I started dosing Vitamin C to try and help it along.

 

[minus9]

This is right after dipping and blasting. I lot more tissue fell off after this picture was taken.(March 6th)

This is 5 to 6 weeks later.(April 20th)

Also, I didn't do anything special to help it along, just my weekly water changes and keeping everything stable.

 

[ukmarks123]

Thank you Minus9. I feel a lot better. Love the shape ofyour Monti. A stunner for sure.