Orange Monti digitata dying?

[Faciosity]

I Have several orange montipora digitatas that were all doing quite well until about two days ago one of them started dying from the bottom up. The tissue looks like it turned into mush and fell off, leaving just a white calcium skeleton behind. When I picked it up to inspect it today, there was a dozen tiny, dark, super fast bug like creatures crawling on it. Are these just copepods or amphipods attracted to the dying flesh, or maybe some kind of parasite that needs to be dealt with before the others get attacked? Please respond if you have any help or advice. It is fairly close to a birds nest and a couple candy canes, ao it's possible they could have fought at night without me noticing. If the problem gets worse, I will move it, but didn't think they were close enough to hurt each other.

 

[returnofsid]

I'd suspect that they are pods taking advantage of the suffering coral and a free meal.

Have you checked your Alk lately? Low or extremely high Alk are very common causes of tissue loss in SPS corals.

Warfare with other corals is also a pretty common cause.

 

[Faciosity]

Thanks for the advice, I just checked my levels and the alk looks fine (about 200ppm). But I did realize my ph is only about 8.0. I havn't done an actual water change in a while trying to build up a little nitrate for my xenias. Looks like it's about time for a change and see if I can bring up my ph a couple points.

 

[returnofsid]

Alk is usually measured in meq/l or dkH, so I'm not at all sure what 200ppm would be.

After reading your PM and realizing that the Monti that's doing bad is the same as another piece of it that's still doing fine, I'd guess it's probably Alleolopathy, chemical warfare with neighboring corals. In such cases, Montis will usually lose the battle.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

I have found that MEN Monti-eating Nudis are very fond of orange M. Digi. Look at the bottom of the coral at the edge of dead tissue to live tissue and see if you can spot very tiny little gray mop looking critters. Try a turkey baster blasting at it also and see if some are blasted off.

Michael, Monti seems near immune to chem warfare, one reason it is so hardy. If any candi cane did actually touch it, could cause damage.

 

[Faciosity]

It's more likely that it was chemical warfare. We inspected the coral closely and found nothing but dead tissue and pods, and since it is just the one coral it seems unlikely that we have a nudi problem.

 

[treehugger]

i second the monti eaters...i've been battling them and they started on my orange digi...look for some very small white frilly nudis on or near the base

 

[Faciosity]

I checked it before and just checked it again, the only thing I have seen are some tiny pods runing up and down the dead part. It's twin piece is two inches away and has no problem. I moved the struggling piece away from all corals except other monti digis and into more flow to promote healing and fight infection. Now I wait and see. Thank you everybody that is trying to help. I will keep a good eye on it and update soon.

 

[kevinpo]

My guess is that the Caulastrea stung it. I recommend fragging off the dead area including a small portion of the live tissue. Caulastrea can produce sweeper tentacles up to 4" if it thinks another coral is intruding on its space. These longer tentacles are specialized for warfare and can produce a much more powerful sting than the normal shorter feeding tentacles. Sometimes one sting on a small part of another coral will poison and kill the entire colony.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[Faciosity]

Yea Kevin, I think you are right, and that's exactly what I did. The dead tissue kept moving further toward the top even after I moved it, so I cut off the remaining inch last night, and when I woke up the whole thing was dead except the little tip that I fragged. Sure looks like chemical warfare to me.

 

[Faciosity]

Will the Caulastreas fight among themselves? I have a neon green a couple red and green, and some huge pink ones right next to each other, and the pink ones are the only ones doing really good. Is it possible that they are stinging each other but aren't so deadly to the same species? Or is that specific variety thriving for some other reason maybe?

 

[Herefishyfishy]

The weapon of sweeper tentacles is biological warfare in lieu of chemical warfare. They use little poison darts called nematocysts. Just like jellyfish and anemones. Yes species can attack other species within the same genus. Survival of the fittest