Montipora disease?

aleidolf · 06/18/2008, 06:36 PM

Orange Cap 1 month ago:

Orange Cap today:

About 3 weeks ago I noticed a slight white slime over the base of the 2 year old colony, and it has slowly worked its way up and started to bleach out from top to bottom. A few other montiporas near the orange cap are showing the white transparent slime too:

Plenty of acros in the tank that seem unaffected. Zoos, leathers, fish, etc all seem perfectly normal. It seems to only affect digitata and capricornis (superman a few inches away seems fine). Parameters are all stable and where they should be. A few new additions recently, but nothing that shows these signs.

Does anyone know what this is, and what I can do about it from taking over and killing anything else?
Thanks,
Andy

Rouselb · 06/18/2008, 06:45 PM

Id take those out of my display and QT them until i found what was eating at them. Sure looks like a parasite of some kind.

abulgin · 06/18/2008, 07:01 PM

I don't know if it's the same thing, but my monti cap started to bleach from the base up. I fragged it and cut away the dead/dying, and it is doing great now. When I pulled it out of the tank the dead part was basically jello and I could smell the rot.

lecher · 06/18/2008, 07:34 PM

Check for monti eating nudibrachs at night with a flash light near the line where the live tissue meets the dead tissue. Looks suspicious to me. Were the new additions montis? If so they might have intrduced them to the tank. Did you quarantine them? Good luck.

Rouselb · 06/18/2008, 07:43 PM

looks like something has been munching on that cap for more then just a wk. have you noticed the cap fading?? I agree with Lecher, have you added anything new in the last month?? Did you QT?? Did you DIP?? I would really pull that bad boy out and drop it in the QT and defiantly look at it for parasites! Good Luck

aleidolf · 06/18/2008, 07:56 PM

No QT, no dips, I know I know

No new monti's with in the past 4-5 months I'd guess.

I have not noticed any flatworms or nudibranchs, but I have not checked at night. I'll do it tonight.

I dont see any bite marks or exposed coral skeleton early on. It seems like the coral gets a few white slimy transparent patches (such as in the green cap picture), they slowly grow, the coral loses color, then it starts to slowly bleach. I'm not real familiar with the signs of monti-eating nudis, but it seems to me more like a bacteria or fungus type attack.

seapug · 06/18/2008, 08:06 PM

the ol' monti RTN...
happened to me many times when I was having some water quality issues, especially alkalinity and phosphate. The amazing thing is that they completely recovered from it once I got things straightened out.

Are you dosing any type of Alkalinity supplements?

Longchamp · 06/18/2008, 08:12 PM

po4 can cause bleaching? well crap, i think i have a ton of it.

aleidolf · 06/18/2008, 08:31 PM

Phosphates are undectable. My alk has been alittle jumpy, ranging from 2.5-4 the past couple months, but all the changes have been fairly slow, and I would have thought the acros would have shown signs of stress long before the montis would?
Seapug, did you notice the same thing, a white slime followed by color loss, then bleaching?

Capt_Cully · 06/18/2008, 08:43 PM

what's your water change sched like? Size? Freq?

aleidolf · 06/18/2008, 08:49 PM

Water changes are not frequent or large enough, I'm in the process of building a 200gal storage system, but until then I've only been doing about 10% every 6 weeks. (500g system, cant mix up more than 50g at a time.)

AugustWest · 06/18/2008, 09:05 PM

I had the same thing happen to a huge Monti Cap (over a foot in diameter) I can tell you this, if you don't frag what you can, you will lose that whole colony.

Break off what you can, just make sure the frag has none of the dead stuff on it.

Mine grew back nicely although its not near the colony it once was. BTW I lost a nice Montipora Digitata at the same time. From your pics it looks to me like the same thing that happened to me. I doubt the Monti-eating nudibranch theory, its more like RTN and happens and spreads QUICKLY. Good luck.

Tang420 · 06/18/2008, 09:06 PM

Frag um to save them. i would frag any bleaching or dieing parts off and see if you can save what you have left. in my experience once they start to bleach out you need to act. go buy a 10-20g tank and start a hospital tank see if at least you can keep what ever it is from spreading to your other corals. if that happen over the course of 1 month imagine what can happen if left unchecked..... if you've had that piece for years and this just started you might wanna look at what you have added to your tank in the past couple months chances are you introduced something to your system. Are you using some different additives look at anything you have changed.
Good luck!

aleidolf · 06/19/2008, 01:12 AM

thanks for the help so far guys. The lights have been out for 2 hours, and I did a quick search and found nothing with a flash light. I'll start fragging what I can ASAP, but its going to take some serious squeezing to fit it all in my frag table. My green cap is 15" in diameter!

DevilBoy · 06/19/2008, 06:44 AM

how about any stray voltage??

aleidolf · 06/19/2008, 03:04 PM

I do get a slight shock when I'm barefoot on the basement concret floor (tank is upstairs, sump in the basement). I've tried to find the source, but even with everything upstairs and downstairs unplugged, I STILL get a shock! I dont use a grounding probe because I dont want to turn the stray voltage into current.

06/18/2008, 06:36 PM	#1
aleidolf Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Indiana Posts: 24	Montipora disease? Orange Cap 1 month ago: Orange Cap today: About 3 weeks ago I noticed a slight white slime over the base of the 2 year old colony, and it has slowly worked its way up and started to bleach out from top to bottom. A few other montiporas near the orange cap are showing the white transparent slime too: Plenty of acros in the tank that seem unaffected. Zoos, leathers, fish, etc all seem perfectly normal. It seems to only affect digitata and capricornis (superman a few inches away seems fine). Parameters are all stable and where they should be. A few new additions recently, but nothing that shows these signs. Does anyone know what this is, and what I can do about it from taking over and killing anything else? Thanks, Andy

06/18/2008, 06:45 PM	#2
Rouselb Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Detroit Michigan Posts: 1,238	Id take those out of my display and QT them until i found what was eating at them. Sure looks like a parasite of some kind. __________________ Larry Current Tank Info: 425g Mixed Reef, (6) Orphek LED mods, (4) MP60s, (2) Bubble King SM250 Skimmer, LMIII for Dose & ATO

06/18/2008, 07:43 PM	#5
Rouselb Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Detroit Michigan Posts: 1,238	looks like something has been munching on that cap for more then just a wk. have you noticed the cap fading?? I agree with Lecher, have you added anything new in the last month?? Did you QT?? Did you DIP?? I would really pull that bad boy out and drop it in the QT and defiantly look at it for parasites! Good Luck __________________ Larry Current Tank Info: 425g Mixed Reef, (6) Orphek LED mods, (4) MP60s, (2) Bubble King SM250 Skimmer, LMIII for Dose & ATO

06/18/2008, 08:06 PM	#7
seapug Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: 4980 ft. Posts: 7,954 Blog Entries: 1	the ol' monti RTN... happened to me many times when I was having some water quality issues, especially alkalinity and phosphate. The amazing thing is that they completely recovered from it once I got things straightened out. Are you dosing any type of Alkalinity supplements? __________________ insert clever saying here. Current Tank Info: 200 gallon custom Marineland DD peninsular tank. LPS dominated mixed reef. Previous 90 gallon mixed reef TOTM April 2009.

06/18/2008, 08:43 PM	#10
Capt_Cully Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Syracuse, NY Posts: 13,574	what's your water change sched like? Size? Freq? __________________ People say cars are a bad investment. Those people don't have reef tanks. Current Tank Info: 120, Radion Gen 2 Pro x 2

06/18/2008, 07:01 PM	#3
abulgin Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Baltimore, MD Posts: 2,664	I don't know if it's the same thing, but my monti cap started to bleach from the base up. I fragged it and cut away the dead/dying, and it is doing great now. When I pulled it out of the tank the dead part was basically jello and I could smell the rot.

06/18/2008, 07:34 PM	#4
lecher Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: SC Posts: 676	Check for monti eating nudibrachs at night with a flash light near the line where the live tissue meets the dead tissue. Looks suspicious to me. Were the new additions montis? If so they might have intrduced them to the tank. Did you quarantine them? Good luck.

06/18/2008, 07:56 PM	#6
aleidolf Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Indiana Posts: 24	No QT, no dips, I know I know No new monti's with in the past 4-5 months I'd guess. I have not noticed any flatworms or nudibranchs, but I have not checked at night. I'll do it tonight. I dont see any bite marks or exposed coral skeleton early on. It seems like the coral gets a few white slimy transparent patches (such as in the green cap picture), they slowly grow, the coral loses color, then it starts to slowly bleach. I'm not real familiar with the signs of monti-eating nudis, but it seems to me more like a bacteria or fungus type attack.

06/18/2008, 08:12 PM	#8
Longchamp Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: baltimore Posts: 341	po4 can cause bleaching? well crap, i think i have a ton of it.

06/18/2008, 08:31 PM	#9
aleidolf Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Indiana Posts: 24	Phosphates are undectable. My alk has been alittle jumpy, ranging from 2.5-4 the past couple months, but all the changes have been fairly slow, and I would have thought the acros would have shown signs of stress long before the montis would? Seapug, did you notice the same thing, a white slime followed by color loss, then bleaching?

06/18/2008, 08:49 PM	#11
aleidolf Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Indiana Posts: 24	Water changes are not frequent or large enough, I'm in the process of building a 200gal storage system, but until then I've only been doing about 10% every 6 weeks. (500g system, cant mix up more than 50g at a time.)

06/18/2008, 09:05 PM	#12
AugustWest Premium Member Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 765 Blog Entries: 1	I had the same thing happen to a huge Monti Cap (over a foot in diameter) I can tell you this, if you don't frag what you can, you will lose that whole colony. Break off what you can, just make sure the frag has none of the dead stuff on it. Mine grew back nicely although its not near the colony it once was. BTW I lost a nice Montipora Digitata at the same time. From your pics it looks to me like the same thing that happened to me. I doubt the Monti-eating nudibranch theory, its more like RTN and happens and spreads QUICKLY. Good luck.

06/18/2008, 09:06 PM	#13
Tang420 Premium Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: So. Cali Posts: 101	Frag um to save them. i would frag any bleaching or dieing parts off and see if you can save what you have left. in my experience once they start to bleach out you need to act. go buy a 10-20g tank and start a hospital tank see if at least you can keep what ever it is from spreading to your other corals. if that happen over the course of 1 month imagine what can happen if left unchecked..... if you've had that piece for years and this just started you might wanna look at what you have added to your tank in the past couple months chances are you introduced something to your system. Are you using some different additives look at anything you have changed. Good luck! __________________ So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Current Tank Info: 135gal Oceanic, 200lbs LR and 200lbs LS w/60gal sump/ref, 3-250watt MH 2X13k & 1X 20k, 330watts VHO Over the Tank, and 150watt VHO 10k over sump/ref, Dart Pump@3600gph for the returns, 1/3HP chiller, and 25Watt UV. ASM G-2 Skimmer.

06/19/2008, 01:12 AM	#14
aleidolf Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Indiana Posts: 24	thanks for the help so far guys. The lights have been out for 2 hours, and I did a quick search and found nothing with a flash light. I'll start fragging what I can ASAP, but its going to take some serious squeezing to fit it all in my frag table. My green cap is 15" in diameter!

06/19/2008, 06:44 AM	#15
DevilBoy Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Wooster, Ohio Posts: 1,724	how about any stray voltage??

06/19/2008, 03:04 PM	#16
aleidolf Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Indiana Posts: 24	I do get a slight shock when I'm barefoot on the basement concret floor (tank is upstairs, sump in the basement). I've tried to find the source, but even with everything upstairs and downstairs unplugged, I STILL get a shock! I dont use a grounding probe because I dont want to turn the stray voltage into current.