HELP!! New Monti.sp frag not looking so good

[CurvBall]

Hi Everybody,

I recently acquired a new Montipora frag, I think it is foliso, attached is an image of the coral in question. This image was taken the day after I put it into the tank.

Since placing the coral in my tank, it has slowly started bleaching, not from the top but the bottom sections of the coral. Could it be RTN? The flesh is not tearing off the skeleton.

In an air of desperation, I gave the frag a iodine dip (not straight iodine :shock: ) last night. I've since placed it back in the tank at the bottom.

Just some basics on my system:
Tank is 75litres plus sumps equals roughly 120litres total. Skimmer is Red Sea Berlin Classic, lighting is 4 x 20w NO actinics, 1 x 150w MH.

Anything I can do to save this guy, SPS are so hard to come by here in South Africa, I don't want to loose thise guy. Everything else in my tank is doing fine, my monti. cap is growing really quick

 

[wrightme43]

I got a monti frag from a swap with a guy here in town. I took it home and it slowly bleached out. I broke all the dead off of it and ended with a piece about 1/4" around. I stuck it in a rock about 5 months ago. It is now encrusting over the rock and is 3" around and growing up, over and around with a nice pink edge of new growth all the way around it. If you can save any small piece they seem to be very hardy and fast growing. HTH. Steve

 

[o2manyfish]

Curvball,

That looks like one of the montis that is available as Bali Aquacultured.

I have seen those arrive from Bali with Montipora Eating Nudibranchs. From your pic that is what I guess you have.

You have to look at the underside of the coral very closely. These nudi are tiny and very destructive.

Use a toothbrush to wipe the Nudis and their eggs out of the way.

Dave B

 

[CurvBall]

Thanks for the replies everybody. Since yesterday evening, my little monti frag has lost almost 60% of it's flesh I will check it tonight for those nudi's. I did break off the 'bleached' parts, but the coral is so oddly shaped that I couldn't break off a proper frag I'm going to hold thumbs and see what happens.

o2manyfish, I do think this is a Bali Aquacultured frag, will speak to my LFS and find out. I'm desperately trying to get other sps corals ut my LFS is rather lazy when it comes to ordering stock Do you have any contact details for SPS distributors that would ship to South Africa? Please drop me an email at [email protected]

Thanks again for all the help, will keep you posted about my monti.

 

[The Claw]

This guy almost totally bleached out, and turned dead and gray, with only a smidgeon left. I just left it in my tank and it began to regrow. This picture was taken in November and It bleached in August the previous year. As you can see, it completely grew back over the old skeleton and is beginning to spread. Moral of the story. Don't give up.

Crud.... I don't have that picture in my photobucket account. Now after the great pep talk, you'll have to just believe me til later

 

[CurvBall]

Thanks Claw, I won't give up, these corals cost a fortune!

Just been told about a guy in another city here in South Africa, that has some awesome acros and monti's, going to try get some frags from him in the new year.

 

[The Claw]

Where's Durban. I have a sister and brother in law living in Jeffries Bay.

 

[NaH2O]

Dave B - awesome information about the nudis.

CurvBall - hang in there. If you can get some frags in the new year, be sure to post pics!

 

[CurvBall]

Hey Claw, Durban is about 9 hours or so north of J-Bay, basically Durban is the other 'Surf City' of South Africa... J-Bay is awesome, the surf spot Supertubes is just amazing (when there is swell).

Thanks for the kind words Nikki, will be posting images as often as possible.

 

[CurvBall]

Just an update, my monti is no more it is now just a white odd shaped skeloton in my tank... I think it was too stressed or something was very wrong with it. Oh well. On the bright side of things my LFS got an awesome shipments of SPS's on the weekend, going to go pick up my blue tipped acro and a green monti cap after work. Just a curious question, what colour forms do monti cap come in? I'm aware of the purple rimmed version, going to get a frag of this in the new year

Thanks again for all your help.

 

[big t]

Sorry to hear of you loss dude. Caps come in lotso colors. Blue, Purple, Green, Green w/ Purple, brown w/ Purple, Red, Orange, Yellow, and more!

 

[CurvBall]

Cool. Thanks big t, I know there are many colour combo's didn't know there were that many! Living here in SA, we don't have any of the stock and selection you guys have

Although, the plan is within the next 5 years to be living in San Fransisco, if not sooner.

 

[The Claw]

Here is the one that I was telling you about. It was almost completely gone. It has now regained its whole skeleton, and is expanding. I'm extremely hapopy because it was an expensive little thing, and I love the color.

 

[coralseas]

i have seen these very small nudis,no joke
have u bin able to clean them of and keep them away
i have some on a monti cap siting a jar in my tank to keep them from streding
i have tryed to kill them with 2 strong baths in inodine, but did not kill them
and tryed to brusth them away but a few still on there
some are as small as a pin dot and white

if i cant lose them i a day or 2 im going to just take it out to dry somewhere

 

[Angelscrx]

i have seen these very small nudis,no joke
have u bin able to clean them of and keep them away
i have some on a monti cap siting a jar in my tank to keep them from streding
i have tryed to kill them with 2 strong baths in inodine, but did not kill them
and tryed to brusth them away but a few still on there
some are as small as a pin dot and white

if i cant lose them i a day or 2 im going to just take it out to dry somewhere

Did you try a freshwater dip? That seems to work really well to get stuff to crawl off of any new corals I get. I do freshwater then the iodine dip.

 

[coralseas]

still in jar only seen one today
ill update latter

 

[CurvBall]

Hi All,

Thanks for all the replies. Claw, your frag is awesome, that purple colour is really amazing.
Well, as I've said, I ended up loosing my little monti frag I'm also in the process of loosing another similiar monti piece I don't know what to do. My monti. cap is growing like a weed though. Will try post some images soon.

 

[Angelscrx]

Have you tried a lugols Iodine dip yet? Are you placing your corals in a quarantine tank? What's your acclimation process?

 

[CurvBall]

Hi Angelscrx,

I drip acclimitise all my new additions over an hour period. From there I give each coral a 10 minute iodine dip (roughly 15% solution), from there I place them in another container of tank water for 10 minutes and then place it into the tank.

I'm beginning to think that these SPS's are getting very stressed at my LFS as, every acro I've got from him have RTN'd within a week. My monti. cap never went into his tanks, I took it home as soon as the stock landed.

I'm going to be switching over to s synthetic salt mix at the end of the month, been using NSW since I set the tank up but after reading Bob Fenner's article and heading the words of Mr. Anthony Calfo, I'm going for the switch.

New new monti doesn't seem to be getting any worse and I hope it pulls through.
Thanks again for the interest.