Just saw this on my green cap

[spotter]

I just got home find my cap like this. the tissue is just blowing off of it. All levels are good except for po4. its 0.15. Wc's are coming along with a dip. Should i start trimming it for frags?

Steve

 

[Hawkeye]

hard to see from that pic. Did something land on the cap and cause the tissue to die? I get sand blown up once in a while on the cap - i blow the sand off otherwise it turns white.

 

[spotter]

I dont think anything got on it. Ive had it for over a year now and it was a 2"x2" frag. Ill snip a piece off tonight just in case.

Steve

 

[dnov99]

Steve, it looks like something fell into it, like Phil said. Could there have been a clump of salt creep that fell from above or something like that??

 

[spotter]

I cant think of anything that would fall on it. Its in a good flow area too but anything is possible. Should i try cutting around that spot?

Steve

 

[dnov99]

I would gently blow off the area with a turkey baster. If it continues to recede from the center I would frag off some big chunks...

 

[Hawkeye]

the cap should recover and grow back over it. I wouldn't cut anything. This is probably not RTN - this is just something shaded that spot and caused the cap to lose it's color there. At least that's what i think. If on the other hand the white area grows then you will need to consider fragging it.

 

[spotter]

Thanks Phil and Darren. Darren i must have jinxed myself yesterday with saying how my po4 has been low for so many weeks.

Steve

 

[spotter]

Looks like my hippo tang has been hanging out in between two layers of the cap and just witnessed it "relieving" itself and it does look like there's some build up in there. The area of build up is right in Tge area of tissue loss.

Steve

 

[spotter]

Well things went from bad to worse over night. Time to frag. I just hope this is isolated to just the green cap....my red cap seems ok for now. I looked for red bugs underneath it but didnt see anything.

Steve

 

[dnov99]

Damn Steve, thats too bad and kind of baffling. FYI red bugs wont affect montis. You would look for Nudi's but they dont do damage that fast. Frag off the biggest pieces you can. Good luck...

 

[spotter]

Yeah i was pretty summed this morning. I was able to get 4 or 5 good size pieces from it and a few smaller ones. Hopefully they will be ok.

Steve

 

[TanksNStuff]

If you start to see white bleach out spots, it could be monti eating nudis. Look for lil white critters like this:

... and you should see some tiny round brownish or white eggs, usually on the underside of the monti. If you do, it's only a matter of time before they devour your montis unless you take action right away. Dip them in Coral RX or ReVive and try to pick off any of the eggs you see because they can survive the dip.

Here's a pretty good blog on them too...

http://blog.captive-aquatics.com/captive_aquatics/2010/09/a-montipora-eating-nudibranch-primer.html

Good Luck!