Possible Birdsnest Predator?????

[Tabeaubi]

Hello,


My pink birdsnest started to have a film algae growth on the tips of the colony. At first inspection it would appear that one of my penductors was hitting the colony with too much flow. This was not the case when I went to ajust the colony to get it out of the flow I noticed a bunch of these small, dark round thingies on the underside of the affected branches. Each effected tip had one of these fellas each. Too small for me to give a good description of what they exactly look like.

I have fragged all the tips that I could see were effected.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f329/tabeaubi/Alexs1008.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f329/tabeaubi/GOODZOOMofBN.jpg


Thanks,
Tom

[twon8]

what are your levels at, specifically alk.

[Tabeaubi]

Calcium 410
Alk 9.14 dkh
Mag 1310
salinity 1.024
No3 - 0
No2 - 0
Amm - 0

[Vanquish]

More like the tips got burnt or the tissue is being blown off, hence the growth of algae, I experienced that once also when my dkh dropped below 6... :(

[blstravler]

Mine did the same thing and I found it was because it was getting way to much light, I also use 400w Mh, I use XM 10K's and they are very intense so I have since lowered my phot period and lowered the coral down in the tank and it has recovered 100%.

[Large Polyp Dave]

Is it a new colony that you just bought?

If so, almost definitely too much light. Mine did the exact same thing until I lowered it

[Tabeaubi]

First thank you everyone for your responses.

Vanquish - The tissue is still intact under the algae. I re-test my levels last night, everything is in check, other than the calcium a little low 395ppm.

BLStraveler - This colony has been in this tank for nearly 5 months under the same bulbs. Before that it was in my 90 gallon for 2 years and it was actually closer to the 400 watters in there. SO I am going to rule out the lighting as the cause. I would understand that it may be the lights if I had started running ozone or aggressive carbon use, but I have neither.

Large Polyp Dave - This colony has been in my systems for nearly 2.5 years. I'm just wondering why the light would affect it now.


Does anyone have any idea what the little dark spots could be? They are only on the effected branches, not neccesarily the closest to the light. It may appear that way from the picture, but I rotated the colony for the picture.
Is it possible that because of the algae growth on the branches that it is allowing something else to colonize on it?

Any more help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Tom

[ctreefer]

The brown things probably are vermatid snails that have encrusted because of the dead skeleton. I have noticed on my birdsnest frag that the mucus from them does seem to bother the colony.

[luvmyclown]

I know this is an older post but...
My pink birdsnest is doing the exact same thing. Even the same little dark spots. Just wondering if and how you resolved the problem Tabeaubi?

[REEFRHEAD]

maybe the dark spots are flat worms anyone think of that?

[luvmyclown]

The dark spots are not flat worms, at least on mine. They are hard and do not move. You can scrape them off. They are a dark brown around the outside with a balck dot in the middle.

[hatfielj]

My birds nest has been doing the same thing ever since it went in the new tank. Mine looks more like a brown algae is growing on it though? There are so many factors that are different in my tank I've just attributed it to the stress of the move, but I'm wondering if it might be some of the things mentioned above? Either way, it doesn't look to good and I'm getting quite tired of looking at it in such bad shape.