Montipora RTN

[maroun.c]

Hi
had this montipora since around a 4-5 weeks. Did well for the first 3 weeks then it started getting white which I suupose is RTN. I got mixed advice on fraging it to save it or ust try to find what caused it to get RTN and maybe by solving whatever went wrong it would improve. today I came home after being away for few days and it was very close to benig totaly white. I fraged whatever brown pieces were left maing sure not to include any white parts (6-7 frags less than 1/2 inch ) and epoxied them on small rocks. my question are:
The frags have been sliming since morning. is this normal after fraging should I increase or decrease flow on them at this time?
I put the original part in the tank is there any hope for it to to recover? it still has 2-3 small brown areas and is sliming in a couple of areas where it was fragged . could it cause the other healthy frags to RTN or is RTN not transmitted from one coral to another
Thanks for any info

 

[Hingeback]

Hi mate I asked the same question about whether it can be transmitted to other corals in the sps forum still awaiting answer. Hope you dont mind me tagging along.
As for the sliming it is quite natural for them to do this. I had an acro do the same. I fragged using superglue and made sure there was plenty around the base. So far there has been no further tissue loss ( 4 days now )
May I also ask if it bleached or did the flesh strip from the monti and wether from bottom or from top.
I will let you know if I get any answers on my thread.

Best wishes

 

[maroun.c]

your welcome to tag alone. Mine just bleached. I did see some sliming too at the time it started to go while but that could be skin loss to

 

[Hingeback]

Hi
Bit of an update, Although I did not get any answers to my question about rtn/stn there have been a couple of subsequent questions about it. The concenus apears to be that nobody knows if it is contagious or not. Some say yes and some say no. Personally I would just keep a close eye on things as I am doing.
I am far from an expert and judging by the number of posts you are an exerienced aquarist but if the colour just bleached from your coral it may not be rtn, it may be enviromental or lighting problems that may be the cause. I apologise if you have already considered these factors but if not it may be an idea.

 

[wife no likey]

what is your alk?

If you are killing montis, then there is probably something pretty out of what w/ your levels.

 

[Hingeback]

Hi wife no likely,
A number of months ago I bought a wild green Monti digitata that after a month decided to bleach from bottom up. tested water everything was A1. took water to LFS who tested and everything was perfect. A number of extremely experienced aquarists put it down to being a wild specimen and that light was unable to penetrate the dense base. I fragged this coral and all frags are doing well.
It does not have to be a case of we are doing something wrong. Sometimes corals just do not like the enviroment we are providing even though what we are providing appears to be A1.

 

[maroun.c]

Thanks for the update Hingeback.
Number of post does indicate some experience yes as My tank is close to 10 years now, but still I have very limited experience with SPS as we rarely get them around here. that's why it is really bad to lose it. I don't think it was lighting issues here as the coral was under 250 W MH in the middle of the tank at the LFS and I put it under 150 W MH higher in the tank so I guess it's getting the same amount of light. water parameters did test fine still I did not test for MG. I did find a couple of mushrooms from a rock I recently got that fell behind it and were rotting, tried to remove them with a clamp but they were disintegrating so I ended syphoning them out. don't konw if they released something that caused the monitpora to bleach, I did add some carbon and will be doing a water cahnge soon. could not check MG levels as I'm still waiting forhte test kit but as I'm adding purple up which contains some MG I guess it should be ok or at least not too bad. Frags looked Ok this morning except for one that looks a bit lighter in colour. weirdly the other montipora at the LFS also bleached suddenly as the LFS owner told me. guess I'll wait a bit more before trying another one so right now I'm just hoping that some of the frags make it.