Rainbow Monti Help Needed Please

[racermike27]

Hey Guys I need a little help. My rainbow Monti frag has been doing really well up until now. It alomst ncrusted over the entire plug in a few weeks. I have seen great growth. But this week I noticed that my green polyps began turning yellow. So I really didn't take it as anything bad. But yesterday I noticed that there was a piece of the skeleton exposed in the yellowed polyp area. I checked all my parameters and all are in check. I looked around and I do not see any parasites either. I was wondering if you guys could offer any advice.

Here is the frag healthy just last week.

Here are two photos as of today

Notice the white area at the top of the frag. It seems as though the "skin" just peeled away. Also the polyp are not fully extending is there anything I can do?
Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[poknsnok]

can you remove the coral and insoect the underside or backside? If so i would look for montipora nudibranches. if you cant check around the bottom edges after dark.. they are small white fuzzy bugs that will kill your montiporas if left unchecked. there are pics of them on this thread. great work clkwrk!

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=903839&perpage=25&pagenumber=2

 

[racermike27]

Thanks for the reply.
I did check on the bottom of the plug and I did not see any of those small white fuzzies. If these were present would they account for the drastic color shift in the polyps?

 

[fishieness]

from what i ahve seen, the color shift in the polyps in completly natural. it is like new growth on branching types of sps like acros. often, as the growth ages, the polyps may change color.
as far as the monti eating nudis, WATCH OUT!!! if this is them (although i dont believe it is because when i had them they would only start at the edge of a coral, not dead center) they are a HECK of a lot smaller than that pic implies. mine were like 1-2 mm long!!! i couldnt spot them on the dead tissue unless i turned off the flow and looked in at night with a flashlight to see the little tassles sticking up.
did anything perhaps fall on it? there are a million different things that can cause the recession of tissue, but most of them that i can think of start at the edge.....not the center......
that is an absolutly beautiful piece by the way... ive been looking for one everywhere.

 

[racermike27]

Thanks,

I will take a better look at it tonight when all the lights are out.

 

[REEF-DADDY]

Have you made any lighting changes?

 

[tonyscoots84]

how are your saltwater levels and par...

 

[racermike27]

Saltwater is a 1.025 salinity. And I have not made any lighting changes. The bulbs are about 5mths old. the frag is only maybe 1 mth old. All other tank params look good. I really don't know what happened. It hasn't come into contact with anything else either.

 

[will sullivan]

when coral tissue receeds from the center of a colony it's usually down to water motion, given that all water parameters are also in check! I know your frag is small but how is your water motion in the tank?

 

[racermike27]

The tank is a 55g. I have a Mag9.5 return. 2 maxijet 1200 on either side with the hydor flo rotating device. and a linear flow maxi 900 deside one of the 1200's. The frag get good flow as the polyps would visibly "sway" when fully extended.

 

[DarkXerox]

I found that when I got my rainbow montipora frag (assuming yours is from the same strain) that all the polyps turned red. The growing polyps are the reddish one and I assume this was because the frag was growing not only upward, but outward. After about a few months, the center polyps turned the characteristic green that the "non-growing" ones have.

Possibly you could lower the frag in your tank if it is bleaching or not. I can't tell if that is tissue recession or bleaching in your picture.

The pattern in which the white parts is in is rather strange though and does look at if it was eaten. Give it a few more days to see what happens.
I've also found that it seems to grow faster right after a fragging too.