For the past two weeks my WWC Cherry Tree Monti has shown white patching and on and off mucus excretion after lights out. I've closely inspected the coral for multiple hours each day both during the daylight hours and the middle of the night around 2-3AM, with my lights going off at 930PM, and I don't see what appear to be nudibranchs, but something is making this Monti not happy...(pics at bottom of post)
I have started to notice the paling/white patching and mucus excretion is occurring on areas where the coral has taken an off growth formation, and is no longer receiving as much direct light as the rest of the colony because it is shading itself. The patching is almost entirely contained to these self-shaded areas, with only a couple very small areas showing this white patching that are not shaded.
So, I did some more inspecting last night. I swear I don't see ANY Monti eating nudibranchs...
What I DO see are what appear to be tiny grains of sand, (think oolite sand tiny, very very small, maybe 1/4 the size of a Monti polyp) on the surface of the coral, moving with the back and forth flow of the tank slightly, but still visibly, and are held on to the Monti by what appears to be a small amount of mucus/slime. I only ever see 2-3 of them at a time on the coral. These "grains" don't move at all hour by hour either, and they seem to eventually get blown off the coral by the flow in the tank. Keep in mind I have a bare bottom tank! So there's no chance it is actual sand.
I don't see any eggs on the underside of the Monti or surrounding rocks, and my 3 other Monti are showing no signs of MEN's...
Kinda stumped here? It seems the white patching has slowed down somewhat in the past few days, and the excretion of muus after lights out has almost stopped completely.
The only other thing I can think of is I treated very close to the Monti with Aiptasia X a few weeks ago. I tried very hard to not get any of the Aiptasia X on the coral but I'm sure that the gyres blew some on to it after the fact...still doesn't really explain the little white "grains".
Anyone have any ideas/advice or similar experiences?
I have started to notice the paling/white patching and mucus excretion is occurring on areas where the coral has taken an off growth formation, and is no longer receiving as much direct light as the rest of the colony because it is shading itself. The patching is almost entirely contained to these self-shaded areas, with only a couple very small areas showing this white patching that are not shaded.
So, I did some more inspecting last night. I swear I don't see ANY Monti eating nudibranchs...
What I DO see are what appear to be tiny grains of sand, (think oolite sand tiny, very very small, maybe 1/4 the size of a Monti polyp) on the surface of the coral, moving with the back and forth flow of the tank slightly, but still visibly, and are held on to the Monti by what appears to be a small amount of mucus/slime. I only ever see 2-3 of them at a time on the coral. These "grains" don't move at all hour by hour either, and they seem to eventually get blown off the coral by the flow in the tank. Keep in mind I have a bare bottom tank! So there's no chance it is actual sand.
I don't see any eggs on the underside of the Monti or surrounding rocks, and my 3 other Monti are showing no signs of MEN's...
Kinda stumped here? It seems the white patching has slowed down somewhat in the past few days, and the excretion of muus after lights out has almost stopped completely.
The only other thing I can think of is I treated very close to the Monti with Aiptasia X a few weeks ago. I tried very hard to not get any of the Aiptasia X on the coral but I'm sure that the gyres blew some on to it after the fact...still doesn't really explain the little white "grains".
Anyone have any ideas/advice or similar experiences?
