Orange Monti Capri whitening

[adirondack]

Hi,

I have a nice orange monti capricornus, in the tank for a year. Has tripled in size, attached to a 4" high rock on the on the sandbed. Been in the sem spot the whole time. I have 6 x 54w T5's, several other soft and hard corals doing well, including a purple rimmed monti cap that is growing like crazy. About a month ago, the orange monti started looking a little whitish in the center, almost as if it had tank detritus accumulating on it. I tried blowing it off with a turkey baster, but nothing came off. Now about 1/3 of the monti looks like this. Maybe it's bleaching, I can't see any sign of disease or pests. Other corals look fine. Water parameters are good. These corals are supposed to be fairly hardy, so I can't figure out what could be happening. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[reefsic]

Look for monti nudi's, underneath the cap. These nudibranchs will munch on the flesh of the monti's leaving white spots!

GL

 

[5h3rW1N]

try coral Rx or dip it in lugol solution. it should swim away when dipped.

 

[shandy_say]

Have the same problem. Had my monti cap for about 4 months already and it was doing fine until i got home yesterday. The center of the monti cap lost some flesh don't know why. All params in check. I checked this morning and the damage is still the same. For the past few days there was sand on it because my purple tang keeps on disturbing the sand and some land on the monti cap. Im quite sure there are no nudis in the tank as i dip all my corals in revive before placing them in my tank. Plus i havent added or changed anything for a couple of months already. Im just wondering, can sand landing on the monti cap damage it that quickly?

 

[blackthunda77]

r u doing water changes? when my caps start to pale i do a couple good water changes and they bounce right back

 

[shandy_say]

yes. 5-10gals every week.

 

[adirondack]

I'll check for nudibrachs, but I don't think so. I do dip with Kent marine coral dip. How big would the nudi's be?

Thanks

 

[shandy_say]

Nudis are very small. Kinda difficult to see.