Montipora dying or being eaten

[Bitcoin Reefer]

My orange plating montiporas keep randomly getting some weird disease or something that spreads pretty quickly, and even somehow seems to spread to green ones that are touching the orange ones. It never seems to start from the green, but will spread from orange to green.

Also random same thing seems to be happening to my neon green birdsnest colonies. I have several of all of these and whole tank doesn’t happen, but it does seem to happen randomly. Here are two photos, one from yesterday and one from today. If I don’t break it off it will spread for sure.

This has been happening for months, but yesterday for the first time I noticed my blue hippo tang (dory) was either picking at the edges or dead flesh, or maybe live flesh? Could Hippo be the culprit?

 

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Could have some Nudi's on it I had the same problem years back..I would put a small piece under a microscope you'd be surprised what you find

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Amazon.com

Could have some Nudi's on it I had the same problem years back..I would put a small piece under a microscope you'd be surprised what you find

I looked pretty closely under a light, but not with microscope. How would I look under microscope? Do I scrape it or just put it straight under the scope with no slide or ?

 

[Merge_595]

I looked pretty closely under a light, but not with microscope. How would I look under microscope? Do I scrape it or just put it straight under the scope with no slide or ?

I would break off the dead piece. I did & my LFS claimed they found some although I never seen them either

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

I would break off the dead piece. I did & my LFS claimed they found some although I never seen them either

Ok will try. Thanks!

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

I can't seem to see much under microscope. I tried looking at a piece of the coral at the border of the dying tissue. I see microscopic critters at 40x magnification, but cant tell what they are. They're very small. Some look like random typical microscopic stuff you'd expect to see on any rock or dead coral.

This is sort of emergency now as on the opposite side of tank my main HUGE 1 foot wide montipora colony which is 3 years old now has whatever this is. Any help greatly appreciated!

If it was Nudis what is solution?

It's odd that it comes, hits some of my montipora quick, and if I break off the dying sections, it stops spreading, then a month or so later it pops up again somewhere else in the tank randomly. It doesn't seem like a group of organisms is moving through the tank eating, it seems kind of random? I wonder if its my fish eating the coral. Not sure.

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Bump guys. Any recommendations? Going to lose a MAJOR colony. This colony is so huge it could be fragged into like 500 pieces no joke lol. I'm thinking about coral dipping it, and moving it to my quarantine tank which hasn't had copper in 6+ months. The other option is just break off a million pieces away from the parts that are dying.

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

I’ve already broken off 1/3 of the inner portion, but I didn’t get it quick enough it’s spreading rapidly. It’s getting bad fast. This damage was done in just a few days. This post originally was about a smaller colony on other side of 400 gallon tank. Now my main colony is getting it.

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Photo from yesterday it’s worse today.

Also it seems it may have started happening to my largest montipora digitata. Guys I need some help here. These are large colonies that could be worth thousands of dollars if I fragged them.

Please help lol.

 

[Merge_595]

Photo from yesterday it’s worse today.

Also it seems it may have started happening to my largest montipora digitata. Guys I need some help here. These are large colonies that could be worth thousands of dollars if I fragged them.

Please help lol.

Weird what # is your calcium? Is it falling below 400? Have you done an icp?

 

[Merge_595]

My orange plating montiporas keep randomly getting some weird disease or something that spreads pretty quickly, and even somehow seems to spread to green ones that are touching the orange ones. It never seems to start from the green, but will spread from orange to green.

Also random same thing seems to be happening to my neon green birdsnest colonies. I have several of all of these and whole tank doesn’t happen, but it does seem to happen randomly. Here are two photos, one from yesterday and one from today. If I don’t break it off it will spread for sure.

This has been happening for months, but yesterday for the first time I noticed my blue hippo tang (dory) was either picking at the edges or dead flesh, or maybe live flesh? Could Hippo be the culprit?

I can't confirm this but my LFS told me years ago Monti caps use & need a ton of calcium. After I removed my red & green I was able to keep my levels more stable. I would start with checking for pest..then calcium..then icp I doubt it's the hippo I used to butcher mines daily trying to remove them & they just would not stay gone..

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I looked pretty closely under a light, but not with microscope. How would I look under microscope? Do I scrape it or just put it straight under the scope with no slide or ?

Montipora-eating Nudibranchs, Phestilla subodiosus, would be visible without a microscope - they basically look like little slugs with bumpy backs.

I see microscopic critters at 40x magnification, but cant tell what they are.

Any pics of the critters?

If it was Nudis what is solution?

It's odd that it comes, hits some of my montipora quick, and if I break off the dying sections, it stops spreading, then a month or so later it pops up again somewhere else in the tank randomly. It doesn't seem like a group of organisms is moving through the tank eating, it seems kind of random? I wonder if its my fish eating the coral. Not sure.

I doubt it's nudibranchs at this point. The fish may be a concern, particularly if you've seen one picking at the coral. Any chance your corals are stinging each other?