Tissue Loss in Digita and Birdnest

[greenmonkey51]

Unintentionally I did a little aquascaping today and I noticed a couple things on a couple corals. On my green digita there is a couple white patches where polyps won't extend. I did accidentally drop the frag moving a rock. The rest of the frag looks ok with good polyp extension. I also noticed on my green birdnest that on the underside of almost all the branches there is no polyps. Like something shaved it. All I see is large holes. I test alk everyday and it drops at most .5 meg/lt. All my other corals look good with good polyp extension and color.

 

[kevinpo]

The M. digitata will most likely recover quickly. On the Seriatopora (without a photo) I would guess that it is due to lack of light.

Cheers,
Kevin

 

[greenmonkey51]

Should I move it up, or is there much you can do since its on the under side of the branches.

 

[kevinpo]

Not much you can do for it. As it becomes larger the lower branches will begin to die off and become live rock.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[greenmonkey51]

Looking closer, the white patches seemed to have expanded a bit on the digitata. If they get much bigger should I think about fragging. Its on the which makes it tougher. The frag isn't the big already. Also I checked on the birdsnest when only the actinics were on and the underside of a couple branches seemed to have come out. Is this a visual illusion or something to do with light.

 

[returnofsid]

Regarding the digitata....I had a M. cap that had a couple of dead spots that I left alone. It was suggested to me to put a drop of superglue on those spots to stop algae from getting a foothold. I didn't. Over a period of time, the dead spots grew a little, but no algae. Then one day I noticed a little bit of algae. Within a couple of days, the algae spread and quickly grew over live tissue. By the end of the week, the entire cap was covered with algae except the edges. I ended up pulling out the rock and using a dremel tool, fragging off all the edges. Then I took a wire brush to the remainder of it to get rid of the algae covered cap. All of the frags survived and have since grown quite large, but I did lose most of the entire colony from the algae. Wishing now I'd have put those couple drops of superglue on it early. Don't know if this helps or not, but hope it does.

 

[kevinpo]

Are the white spots exposed skeleton or just bleached coral? A picture would help. Exposed skeleton can be covered with superglue to prevent algae growth. Bleaching (if other corals are doing fine) can be addressed by moving the coral into a low light area. M. digitata can live in surprising low light conditions (less than 100 PAR).

Typically SPS corals have more polyp extension in the evening and at night.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[returnofsid]

Kevin, it was actually you that suggested to my the use of Superglue and I wish I'd have listened....lol. I did, but was too lazy to actually do it. Can the superglue be applied while the coral is still in the water?

 

[kevinpo]

Can the superglue be applied while the coral is still in the water?

Yes it can but the glue applicator tip tends to get clogged as the water causes the glue to set. You may have to cut the tip of the applicator back about 1/16" or so, or use a pin to clear the tip.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[greenmonkey51]

The digita looks better and polyps are almost covering the white spot. Its not healed, but the coral seems happy. Do birdsnest not like a lot of flow. I had it in the middle of the tank where 2 koralia 4's flow would meet and after cleaning the powerheads it seem pissed and wouldn't extend. I moved it up the rocks and almost immediately it was happy.

 

[returnofsid]

Glad to hear your digitata is doing better!!! The experience I've had with Seriatopora hystrix, having 3 colonies in my tank, down to 2 now, is that flow isn't all that critical and it needs high light. I've got a colony in medium flow and in high flow, both doing well. Could it be that the undersides of the branches are just getting shaded too much? If that's the case, there's not a whole lot you can do about it and it's normal. Also glad to see it's doing better since being moved. Maybe it was the direct impact of the high flow that was doing it. You mentioned moving it "up" so I'm assuming it also got moved into a higher light range?

 

[kevinpo]

Seriatopora sp. like very high flow and high light. They can take as much light as you can give them (with proper acclimation). They will grow thicker and stronger branches in high flow. SPS corals do not like the unnatural constant flow, but rather a pulsing wave action in 5-15 second intervals.

Regards,
Kevin