aquadonkey
New member
Hi there. My pink poci is bleaching from the inside out. Two of the inside branches at the bottom are now almost completely white. Is the coral dying? And why?
Pocillipora Bleaching
- Thread starter aquadonkey
- Start date
aquadonkey
New member
Here's a (cell-phone) pic:
Steve Canyon
New member
Perhaps it's the effect of the new growth shading the inner lower portion of the young colony.
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
this is a real possibility.
Barring predation the other most likely cause is less than optimal water parameters. Does the aquarium have good water circulation (oxygenation) or has it gotten overly warm lately? I would suspect these two factors first.
aquadonkey
New member
How can I tell if there is enough oxygen? Is there a test kit for that?
The tank did get up to 81F yesterday, but the bleaching had already started before that happened.
Other params are okay - still working on adjusting dosing levels to keep optimum numbers for KH and Ca, but neither of them fall below the accepted range and I make changes very slowly.
Yesterday:
temp 79.4
PH ? (meter is acting funny - got more calibration fluid today)
SG 1.024
NO3 - 3
Ca - 415
KH - 7.4
KH is the one I'm trying to slowly raise.
The tank did get up to 81F yesterday, but the bleaching had already started before that happened.
Other params are okay - still working on adjusting dosing levels to keep optimum numbers for KH and Ca, but neither of them fall below the accepted range and I make changes very slowly.
Yesterday:
temp 79.4
PH ? (meter is acting funny - got more calibration fluid today)
SG 1.024
NO3 - 3
Ca - 415
KH - 7.4
KH is the one I'm trying to slowly raise.
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
that Poci is extremely tolerant of conditions.
Do us a favor: tonight (well after the aquarium lights are out) shine a flashlight at the base of the coral and see if there's anything on it.
Especially try to notice if any Asterina are around it's base.
Do us a favor: tonight (well after the aquarium lights are out) shine a flashlight at the base of the coral and see if there's anything on it.
Especially try to notice if any Asterina are around it's base.
reefscape15
New member
Did you say in an earlier post (last week), that you just moved a euphyllia coral because it was touching some other corals? Could that be the problem? Is it just bleached on the white parts or is the tissue gone as well? Are there visible polyps sticking out on the white parts? If not, then it could be from another coral or fish or any other type of preditor picking at it. I have had a couple Acros that started loosing tissue near the base and it just kept spreading. I can't remember what the term was that was used to describe it.....rapid polyp bailout.....or something like that. If that's the case, then there's probably not much luck in saving it unless you trim a few healthy parts off and re-mount them. rapid tissue expulsion??????? I can't remember.......GARY?!?!?!?! Does anyone know the term I'm talking about?
reefscape15
New member
thank you. I knew it was something like that. Hope that's not what's happening!
aquadonkey
New member
Eww - Rapid Tissue Necrosis - sounds bad. It also sounds like what it going on here.
No polyps on the white parts - looks white and porous.
Is this contagious??
Also - I did post last week about a hammer that decided to grow sweepers - the offending coral is now re-homed
No asterina on the coral, although I do have a few in the tank. I see two 'pods on the white (dead) part, but that's it - unless what I think are pods are actually something else - some sort of pest.
No polyps on the white parts - looks white and porous.
Is this contagious??
Also - I did post last week about a hammer that decided to grow sweepers - the offending coral is now re-homed
No asterina on the coral, although I do have a few in the tank. I see two 'pods on the white (dead) part, but that's it - unless what I think are pods are actually something else - some sort of pest.
aquadonkey
New member
I guess I'll just have to wait and see..... I feel like the white is spreading noticeably (over days, not hours), but I have been known to have a bit of an over-active imagination.
By "it's not getting enough light," do you mean that the coral in general is not getting enough light, or only the underside - and if you mean just the underside, there's nothing I can do about that right? Just the normal chain of events?
By "it's not getting enough light," do you mean that the coral in general is not getting enough light, or only the underside - and if you mean just the underside, there's nothing I can do about that right? Just the normal chain of events?
Conesus_Kid
Premium Member
Sometimes, when coral colonies grow, the inner/lower branches of the colony bleach/die off because they don't get the light and/or water flow that they did when the colony was young.
Keep an eye on things, and don't let your imagination get too overactive! If this progresses to other branches and the tips, then there's something to worry about.
As an aside, you may want to make sure your refractometer is calibrated and get your SG up to 1.026; then measure your Ca and Alk.
Keep an eye on things, and don't let your imagination get too overactive! If this progresses to other branches and the tips, then there's something to worry about.
As an aside, you may want to make sure your refractometer is calibrated and get your SG up to 1.026; then measure your Ca and Alk.
Bluephish13
New member
The bleached branches look too distinguished too be just shading. The line between healthy tissue and dead skeleton IMO looks very distinguished.
Not all necrosis is rapid some is slow and every speed in between.
If it is slow and you find and fix the problem soon, you could see it stop and start to grow back.
IME if you do not fix the problem and just frag it, necrosis just starts again from were you cut it and becomes rapid on the frag.
Any necrosis is painful to watch IME .
good luck
just start going threw the check list of everything that can be off.
Not all necrosis is rapid some is slow and every speed in between.
If it is slow and you find and fix the problem soon, you could see it stop and start to grow back.
IME if you do not fix the problem and just frag it, necrosis just starts again from were you cut it and becomes rapid on the frag.
Any necrosis is painful to watch IME .
good luck
just start going threw the check list of everything that can be off.
Bluephish13
New member
any new carbon or GFO added?
GMaquarium
New member
Its common for the bottom of branches to die off if shaded but that takes more time. Its also common for poccillapora to die off in case of sudden swings in water quality and temp. However when talking about hot temperature causing problems, it would be throughout the branches. Yet low alk or swings often cause branched sps corals to bleach from bottom up.
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
I wouldn't frag the coral at this point. Just monitor the situation and let us know how things progress.
aquadonkey
New member
Nope
Hmm.... maybe it's an Alk thing - I've been having a hard time keeping my alk up - I did just increase the dosing a couple days ago, so I'll measure again and see if it's helped at all. Possibly my hubby forgetting to dose while I was out-of-town for a few days triggered the problem. I already had Alk on the lower end of the scale, then with a couple days of no dosing.....
I'm thinking it's not dye-off because of shading - the dead section is too clearly dilineated and pure white.......
