What Causes This?

[Compguy]

Hi,

Can someone help me out, looks like this piece is bleaching, what causes this, I would like to make sure it doesn't happen to anything else.

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh275/Gatsby06/Livestock%20In%20My%20Tank/Coral/IMG_0527.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh275/Gatsby06/Livestock%20In%20My%20Tank/Coral/IMG_0526.jpg



Thanks,
Clint

[gsoaxionsk8]

looks more like rtn than bleaching. There are tons of stuff that can cause it. From the pic it looks like you might have too much direct flow on that piece but its hard to tell.

[twon8]

def. rtn, that piece will not survive, what;s your alkalinity?

[Compguy]

My alk runs stable at 10.2

[Compguy]

It is in a med to high flow area

[Compguy]

What does RTN stand for?

[HumbleLobster]

Rapid Tissue Necrosis.

It means that the tissue is quickly dying. The fact that the tissue loss is from the base up is a good indicator.

If I were you, I'd try and frag off pieces of it that are healthy still and hope that they survive. RTN is something that is hard to pin down on a specific cause without knowing more about your tank.

What lighting is the piece under?

[Compguy]

Its at the bottom of the tank as I just got this piece about 2 weeks ago, I have two 150w MH and two 54w Actinics, everything has been stable, should I move it out of the flow and see if it helps, or maybe in a kind of shady area, or more light.

[Compguy]

Well, moved it to a less flow area, its probably to late, but will see what happens

[MCsaxmaster]

Many types of stress can induce that, unfortunately. Sometimes pieces can be saved if they are fragged off ~1 inch ahead of the recession, and if they are placed in a different system. This response is effectively large-scale apoptosis (programmed cell death), it appears. Cutting the coral well ahead of the line of recession helps to ensure that you are getting tissue that hasn't "heard" the signal yet, as does puttng the coral in a different system.

Chris

[gskidmor]

I've found it best to frag a small piece that is unaffected by the RTN. That small frag will normally survive (assuming the original cause of the RTN has been addressed) while the mother colony continues its decline

[Compguy]

I didn't have any spots big enough to frag, what I did was pull the frag off the plug and hope that the part that encrusted on the plug will re-grow, the actual frag was gone, guess I just didn't have it in the right place or something, I don't really know what happened, oh well, guess I have to deal with the fact that I am gonna lose some once in a while.