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Help!!!! What's eating this?

Kmooresf

Kmooresf

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One of my favorite corals appears to be getting eaten by something??

My red brain coral......had it for 6 years or so. It has been absolutely AMAZING over the past few years. Noticed it was looking a little annoyed last night and I was watching the fish to see if anyone was picking at it. Haven't seen ANY picking by the fish.......however this morning it was MUCH worse and seems to have missing flesh in many spots.

This was taken a couple days ago.........
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This is today. :( SO bummed!!
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Moved it to the frag tank and took a top down shot......you can see the missing tissue.
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Water is good. I put a Kalk reactor on the tank last week and have been checking water DAILY.

Today the Alk is 8.6, Calcium is 470, PH 8.46, Nitrates are 20 and phosphate .10.....Magnesium is 1350.

I would be shocked if the coral makes it, but any help with what might be causing this is appreciated.

Tank suspects would be...........

Gold spot rabbit fish or coral beauty dwarf angel. Both have nipped a little at a few of the LPS, but not even enough for them to close up, let alone eat holes in them.
 
Goldspot is not trustworthy in a reef IME. And they get 14+inches. The trach could heal with some TLC. Or of course there could be some late night viewing for some large nasty worms ;p
 
Kensington Reefer said:
Goldspot is not trustworthy in a reef IME. And they get 14+inches. The trach could heal with some TLC. Or of course there could be some late night viewing for some large nasty worms ;p
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Thanks Erin, I definately have my eye on the goldspot, but so far I really haven't seen him do much more than a nip here and there. I was thinking about possible worm issues. I come home from work though at 330am and often check out the tank with a flashlight. Never seen anything. I'll try looking with just the tank moonlights and see if I can spot something.

@Jar, No peppermint shrimp.......have a pair of cleaners and 1 very large coral banded shrimp. The cleaners I think are only a year or so old, but the coral banded I have had for many years. Never had a problem with it. I also have two very large brittle stars that I have had for many years as well.
 
I have a gold spot that is very aggressive about picking food out of corals but doesn't actually eat them. However, I feed mine often, and there are two varieties. Mine is Siganus Punctatus, which has a more blue base tone and usually a darker spot on the shoulder. Which kind is yours?

I would personally suspect the angel more, I've had terrible luck with any of the centropyge and LPS.

On a side note, if it's not water quality related, and it's strictly physical damage, I'd be surprised if that coral did die. Trachyphyllia are tough, don't give up on it!
 
anathema said:
I have a gold spot that is very aggressive about picking food out of corals but doesn't actually eat them. However, I feed mine often, and there are two varieties. Mine is Siganus Punctatus, which has a more blue base tone and usually a darker spot on the shoulder. Which kind is yours?

I would personally suspect the angel more, I've had terrible luck with any of the centropyge and LPS.

On a side note, if it's not water quality related, and it's strictly physical damage, I'd be surprised if that coral did die. Trachyphyllia are tough, don't give up on it!
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anathema said:
I have a gold spot that is very aggressive about picking food out of corals but doesn't actually eat them. However, I feed mine often, and there are two varieties. Mine is Siganus Punctatus, which has a more blue base tone and usually a darker spot on the shoulder. Which kind is yours?

I would personally suspect the angel more, I've had terrible luck with any of the centropyge and LPS.

On a side note, if it's not water quality related, and it's strictly physical damage, I'd be surprised if that coral did die. Trachyphyllia are tough, don't give up on it!
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I think you and Erin may both be right. The brain is starting to open up again in the frag tank. I am gonna be SO happy if it lives.

I believe we have the same Siganus Punctatus. This pic is a little light because of the flash, but it is difficult to take a picture of this fish. He is very reflective. LOL! The spot on the shoulder is often almost black. His base is very blue and he is very dark under the blue LED's. I haven't ruled him out as the problem, but also haven't seen any problems yet. The Angel on the other hand has one of my favorite Monti's constantly closed up. I was already planning to try and catch it. He is still pretty shy at feeding time though.
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Yep that's the same fish I have. My favorite even though he is very shy. I had a former roommate feed the tank while I was away a few summers ago and she described mine as "that brown fish" because he color changed every time she came in the room.

Hope yours isn't the problem, they are so cool looking and full of character.

If you do have to trap yours it should be pretty easy. They aggressively feed on almost any macroalgae.
 
Coral beauty would be my bet. I had something similar happen with an "open brain" that I bought, and he simply picked it until it turned into what you see, then skeleton... strangely enough another open brain I got for free was untouched. Guess you need to chalk that up to that whole 50% reef safe moniker that these dwarf angel fish always seem to get from LFS people trying to sell you a fish :D
 
+1 on the coral beauty. Mine was a model citizen until one day it took a liking to a fungia ! LMK if you need to borrow the fish trap.
 
gimmito said:
+1 on the coral beauty. Mine was a model citizen until one day it took a liking to a fungia ! LMK if you need to borrow the fish trap.
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Hey Jim, I may take you up on that. Thanks. I have the weekend off, so maybe I can pick it up from ya.......or if your free you can drop by. I'll pm you later this week.

Brain seems to be recovering. I am pretty amazed as it looked pretty bad to me. So far no other casualties in the tank. Gonna take the Coral Beauty out and keep an eye on the rabbit fish for now. I really enjoy the rabbit fish, so hoping I can keep it. We'll see. Thanks for all the input.
 
anathema said:
rabbit.jpg


Hey look! It's another rabbitfish! :D
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Very nice!!! ;) Mine is gonna stay in the tank for awhile. Coral beauty is going first. If there are still problems, the rabbit will have to go. :( Fingers crossed. ;)
 
So I solved the issue. The rabbit fish has moved on to better things.

The coral has recovered and seems quite healthy. HOWEVER.................it has lost ALL of the red that it used to have. Now is a light neon green only. Any chance it will get the color back? I am still happy to have it living and thriving. Just a curious outcome. Thanks.
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Move it to a lighter or darker spot perhaps? Some of the colour expression is dependent upon lighting conditions. Some colour is expressed for "sun screen" effect and other colours fade out in higher light. The only other thing I can think of is to feed it higher EFA foods. That can have an effect on coloration.
 
Thanks Mike, it's in the same spot that it has been living the past year. I am upgrading the current lighting to an A350 soon and maybe that will be enough. I am feeding Rods food and rotifers several times a week. Any other food I should be using. I stopped using the oyster feast as my phosphates go nuts with that stuff. Even a little spikes them pretty high. I am limited on where I can place this because there is a LOT of flow in the tank. This one is big and gets pushed around a lot. It lives directly under one of the Tunze's, so it gets it's flow from water getting pulled into the pump. I will try feeding it more directly. I sort of shoot food in it's general direction (especially because I have a gregonian and some fat head dendro's next to it) however I don't spot feed it. Maybe it just needs a little TLC. Thx man.
 
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