Lbrewer34
Well-known member
So this was interesting. Last week I had one of my orange monti go from deep orange to bleach white in about two days. The orange literally peeled off, almost like paint when you use paint thinner. Just before this happened, right on top it looked like there was a spider web forming on top (best description, I didn't take any pics), similar to what frogspawn sends out when I feed it. I have another frag from the same colony that didn't die off, but it's been struggling since I got it. Right now im only running pc's, but the monti has lasted for a few months without any problems, as I placed them pretty high up. This is what I came up with:
1) that spiderwebby stuff was from the frogspawn, got caught above the monti and "attacked" the monti because when the frogspawn sets that out to catch food it includes an aggressive feature to it to keep other predators away. (this is purely an educated guess).
2) some other creepie crawly in the tank attacked or came in contact with it. I've seen an interesting type of snail come out and start to shoot a substance at some of the mushrooms once. Every time I see one of these guys, I move them to the sump. I've also seen a centipede looking guy and a flatworms that when I tried to catch jerked back so hard it almost ripped the tweezers out of my hand.
3) chemical imbalance. Most of my levels stay consistent; Ca 460, Mg 1500, PO4 0, nitrate 5-20 ppm, dkh 11, ph 8.1. Nothing changed too much after the monti turned and I'll test again later today to see if there are any other shifts. The only other thing I've changed is not vodka dosing. I was up to 2.1 ml per day and stopped after I forgot to dose for a few days.
Lengthy I know but any ideas will hopefully help orevent any further loss. On a side note, I didn't actually buy the monti, someone I bought some other coral from game me a frag to see how it would do, so there isn't any real loss. I just want to make sure I'm not missing something that could affect my softy's.
Thanks,
Lee
1) that spiderwebby stuff was from the frogspawn, got caught above the monti and "attacked" the monti because when the frogspawn sets that out to catch food it includes an aggressive feature to it to keep other predators away. (this is purely an educated guess).
2) some other creepie crawly in the tank attacked or came in contact with it. I've seen an interesting type of snail come out and start to shoot a substance at some of the mushrooms once. Every time I see one of these guys, I move them to the sump. I've also seen a centipede looking guy and a flatworms that when I tried to catch jerked back so hard it almost ripped the tweezers out of my hand.
3) chemical imbalance. Most of my levels stay consistent; Ca 460, Mg 1500, PO4 0, nitrate 5-20 ppm, dkh 11, ph 8.1. Nothing changed too much after the monti turned and I'll test again later today to see if there are any other shifts. The only other thing I've changed is not vodka dosing. I was up to 2.1 ml per day and stopped after I forgot to dose for a few days.
Lengthy I know but any ideas will hopefully help orevent any further loss. On a side note, I didn't actually buy the monti, someone I bought some other coral from game me a frag to see how it would do, so there isn't any real loss. I just want to make sure I'm not missing something that could affect my softy's.
Thanks,
Lee
