jomain
07/30/2012, 09:33 AM
Hello all,
I have a dendrophyllia that is not doing good these days and I can't figure out what's wrong... It used to be very healthy. I got it with two heads, and it soon grew to about 10 heads. But then the growth stopped, and now the polyps don't extend as much (although it still eats a lot), the growth stopped, and a couple of 'holes' have started appearing and getting larger.
Here are some pictures:
198199
That was when I got it first
198200
This is to give an overview of the problem...
198202
Zoom in at the edge where the 'hole' is progressing: is that dead tissue or some sort of nudibranch?
198201
Where the tissue is gone... What is this????
The progression has been pretty slow. I first noticed a small hole maybe 4 weeks ago.
At first I thought it was simply a crab nipping at the coral. So I feed the crab more, with some sinking pellets that they love (I have one small emerald crab, two red hermits, 3 sexy shrimps).
Then I read somewhere online that it could be lack of magnesium. I got a test kit and everything is alright. It's small 6G and I'm changing half the water every week, so things don't get depleted too fast.
Just in case some trace element was missing, I started dosing the Salifert supplement for soft corals.
Over the last week, I thought maybe it was simply lack of food, although the coral is still eating quite a bit (frozen food, Rod's). I've been traget feeding more heavily, no change...
So... i don't really know what to try at this point. Any suggestion? Could it be some sort of weird nudibranch?
Thanks!
I have a dendrophyllia that is not doing good these days and I can't figure out what's wrong... It used to be very healthy. I got it with two heads, and it soon grew to about 10 heads. But then the growth stopped, and now the polyps don't extend as much (although it still eats a lot), the growth stopped, and a couple of 'holes' have started appearing and getting larger.
Here are some pictures:
198199
That was when I got it first
198200
This is to give an overview of the problem...
198202
Zoom in at the edge where the 'hole' is progressing: is that dead tissue or some sort of nudibranch?
198201
Where the tissue is gone... What is this????
The progression has been pretty slow. I first noticed a small hole maybe 4 weeks ago.
At first I thought it was simply a crab nipping at the coral. So I feed the crab more, with some sinking pellets that they love (I have one small emerald crab, two red hermits, 3 sexy shrimps).
Then I read somewhere online that it could be lack of magnesium. I got a test kit and everything is alright. It's small 6G and I'm changing half the water every week, so things don't get depleted too fast.
Just in case some trace element was missing, I started dosing the Salifert supplement for soft corals.
Over the last week, I thought maybe it was simply lack of food, although the coral is still eating quite a bit (frozen food, Rod's). I've been traget feeding more heavily, no change...
So... i don't really know what to try at this point. Any suggestion? Could it be some sort of weird nudibranch?
Thanks!