What would cause a bare spot like this on my SPS?

[Btortorelli]

Man ive been having the same problem you are having on my hawkins...it gets a few spots then it recovers then a couple weeks later it has a few more, Ive been trying to find an answer too...my fish are vlamingi tang, kole tang, two clowns,cromie's,and two purple dottybacks.

 

[OneReef]

I am going to set some drinking glasses with food in them against the rocks tonight and see what kinda crabs I catch.

 

[poolkeeper1]

Redbugs

Redbugs

I pulled the Plum Crazy out and dip a soak in Coral Rx. I did not see and flatworms come off, but these are the only few things I saw. One is an asterina,(lots in my tank), but not sure of the others. One is a little snail of some sort. The other two are like worm-type things.

The thing on the bottom right looks just like a redbug, They have red heads and yellow bottoms so i think you should get a magnifiying glass or camera with a good Macro lens and you will see them plain as day.
They are so hard to spot at first but once you see them Bam!:uzi:
Interceptor from a Vet will solve your problem with them.
Bill

 

[saltygeek]

Doesnt look like a redbug to me. Plus look at the size of it compared to the starfish. Redbugs would be tiny compared to that.

 

[pwoller]

Doesnt look like a redbug to me either. Too large compared to the asterea.

 

[OneReef]

Four drinking glasses are set up against the rocks in various locations in my tank tonight. I have pellet food in them. Will be interesting to get up tomorrow and see what I have caught.... :0)

 

[sanababit]

i had the same problem and my bicolor blenny was to blame, here are some photos

the culprit

it sleeps with the fishes now, if you know what i mean, all my colonies came back, so get the blenny out ASAP, good luck

Sana

 

[OneReef]

i had the same problem and my bicolor blenny was to blame, here are some photos


it sleeps with the fishes now, if you know what i mean, all my colonies came back, so get the blenny out ASAP, good luck

Sana

Thanks for the pics. That is what mine look like. I removed the blenny a couple of days ago and and going to see if everything recovers and no more damage shows up.

 

[michael.lemke]

I have the same problem and have a bicolor blenny as well. I was told by another reefer that is very knowledgeable that the blenny is attracted by something else going on in the tank. With this thread I an beginning to think he was wrong. The problem is that I can not seem to catch the bugger. I'll watch this thread to see what you guys come up with with the blenny gone. I have considered EVERYTHING ELSE with no avail. I have even started to catch all of those asterea snails thinking they may be the nasty kind. I'll let you know if that helps.

 

[michael.lemke]

sana, how long ago did you take the bicolor out?

 

[sanababit]

sana, how long ago did you take the bicolor out?

hmmm, about 7 months ago, i used the SEARCH AND SUCK technique, jejeje, heres the story

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1798402

Sana

 

[OneReef]

I got lucky in getting mine out. One of his favorite holes in a rock that he backs into, is a rock on top of my reef. When he was in the hole, I put my thumb over it, and lifted the rock out. One the rock was exposed to air, he flopped out into an empty bucket. I lifted him out and put him in the frag tank. I feel very lucky to have caught him so easily.

 

[OneReef]

Also, I have used the suck technique on another fish, but not with a shop vac. I got a 1" piece of flexible vinyl tubing and put one end in the tank and the other end near a bucket. I started a siphon on the bucket end by sucking in air and sticking it down in the bucket before the water came through. As the siphon started and water started pouring into the bucket, I stuck the end of the tubing in the tank next to the fish and it sucked him up and into the bucket.

 

[Frick]

My vote is the blenny.

The snail was a colonista (spell?). Everyone mistakes them for "baby turbos", but they are a natural algae grazer that come from live rock and stay small. The pod is just a pod, too big to be a RB.

 

[CJ 1098]

I would still look for aefw's as they are impossible to see, look for the eggs.
That is how I spotted them.
Also if you put a small piece of the affected coral in a container with no circulation they aefw's will crawl off of the coral and onto the sides of the container , then you can see them as they are clear.

 

[Rendos]

I had a hairy crab that lived in one acro colony for a couple of years. It took bite marks out that look just like yours. It never did much damage to the coral overall and I just let it be. Then one day I saw a lot of bite marks in my Blue Millipora and caught the crab out. I have not seen any bite marks since.

 

[OneReef]

Is this just a Red Emerald Crab?

 

[stagcrazy]

i bet it was the blenny my friend had a bi-color wipe out some of his sps.

 

[Met3112]

Mithrax sculptus

 

[OneReef]

Just a quick update. It has been a week since I removed the blenny. All the bare spots on my SPS have recovered and I have had no more new spots appear. So it looks like he was the culprit.