What is this on birdsnest?

Well, after talking to pascal last night I got some tips on aperature mode.Its still a bit of a challenge shooting through a bowfront tank as it really messes with the focus.


Anyway pic one shows about how the polyp starts to blister.


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Pic of blistered polyp

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Sorry, I have no idea what's going on. Sg or alk swings could cause it I suppose. Any undissolved salt such as salt creep or calcium hydroxide spinkle on there accidentally?
 
Sorry, I have no idea what's going on. Sg or alk swings could cause it I suppose. Any undissolved salt such as salt creep or calcium hydroxide spinkle on there accidentally?


Thats my only guess if it is something to do with instability.several weeks ago I had a salinity issue but was corrected weeks ago.Naw,on salt creep or kalk powder getting on it.I mix and dose from the basement through a diaphram pump.

Thinking about a dip in lugols but am afraid if it is stressed induced it may weeken it more and cause it to rtn completely.
 
After thinking alot about this and looking at different aquarists veiws as to what maybe going on.I still was unsure of what may be going on.Its just the common problem indicators just dont seam to fit. But,I dont think any of the possible causes that were being mentioned both here and the sps forum were not worth looking into.As mentioned though for the most part just didn't seam likely.I even considered contacting Eric Borneman but after finding out hes in either in Bonaire or working on the oil spill or something that idea was trashed. I decided to do some research and see if anything even remotely similar fit what I was seeing.

Well ,as of now I think I may have found something.It just seams way to coincidental to say the least,the very least.See this ----->http://www.int-res.com/articles/meps/10/m010p057.pdf

From it ,it suggests its a reproduction strategy and can be triggered as a defense mechanism /stress response but ,also appears to be a known form of asexual reproduction.AKA(polyp bailout)I guess it wasn't really known to Seritopora Hystix until fairly recent. It does seam to make sense to me now if that is what is going on,I dont know and not trying to get my name in the national geographic ,LOL.
Just siked after spending half the night researching papers online, that it might not necessarily, be a bad thing going on.I was just ready to trash my birdsnest fearing a pathogen or viral/bacterial infection.
any thoughts here?
 
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Just want to say I appreaciate all the advice from everyone that responed,they were all of sound advice.

Where Im at now, Blurry (pascal ) stopped over with 2 frags of birdsnest to donate to my cause 2 days ago.Placed in the tank with the thought if it is a pathogen or viral infection the new birdsnest should become infected.
Another thing checked (again with the help of pascal) he brought calibration fluid ,and 2 refractometers.Whitch we compared against both my calibration fluid and refractometer.Calibrated, mine seams to check out within .o1 as SG.But it does drift.It is obvious though as long as I calibrate it just prior to use it seams to be consistient and accurate.As a secondary precaution he loaned me his spare refrcto(.Good guy,thanks pal.
)
Other thoughts ,not sure but this is what im thinking.
From that article,description wise it fits,also it mentions 2 stressors that have been known to trigger it .one of whitch was lowering salinity,related to terrential rain or runoff.That fits.
Parts that im curious about are dont like the sounds of are
(1) again from the article, once the stress response starts it was unable to be stopped.
I dont know what that means exactly but what Im noticing now is that the polyps inflate and deflate.Meaning they arent coming off now.Hopefully thats a good thing.
 
Update,back to square one.

As stated in the last post ,pascal donated two frags for my cause.After being well settled in I placed 1 next to my infected birdsnest colony the other on the opposite side of the tank.
The one frag placed next to the infected colony ,as of now seems to be taken on the same blistering polyp formation.The other shows no sign of it.

Ive taken a good hard second look at what other posters stated ,in that eventually it progressed to other corals with a final outcome of rtn.

I think at this point Im trashing every birdnest in my tank with the exception of the soul uninfected frag,hoping for the best.
Anyone think otherwise ?
 
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