On March 17 I added a Candy Stripe Acan. This evening I noticed it appears to have been chewed on - you can see some of the damage at the bottom part of the coral.
I did dip when I added this coral (always do). I didn't see anything on the plug. The only pest hitchhiker that I'm aware of are a few vermetid snails.
Livestock includes a snapping shrimp, a peppermint shrimp, a skunk cleaner and a few very small hermits (red legged and zebras), plus a mix of snails, two clownfish and, maybe, a watchman goby (hasn't been seen in two weeks, since about 1 week after added to tank).
This is a 50 gallon RedSeaReefer 250 with the following water parameters:
salt 1.026
temperature 80
pH 7.88
ammonia, nitrite and nitrate all zero
alk 8
calcium ~500
Mg 1320
phosphate 56 ppb
Any ideas? Do you think the hermits are the problem? They haven't bothered any other corals in the tank (and my husband really likes the zebra hermits - he wants us to get some more of them so I really hope it's not them). Some hitchhiker that I haven't discovered yet? A disease? Low nitrate? High phosphate?
Please help!
I did dip when I added this coral (always do). I didn't see anything on the plug. The only pest hitchhiker that I'm aware of are a few vermetid snails.
Livestock includes a snapping shrimp, a peppermint shrimp, a skunk cleaner and a few very small hermits (red legged and zebras), plus a mix of snails, two clownfish and, maybe, a watchman goby (hasn't been seen in two weeks, since about 1 week after added to tank).
This is a 50 gallon RedSeaReefer 250 with the following water parameters:
salt 1.026
temperature 80
pH 7.88
ammonia, nitrite and nitrate all zero
alk 8
calcium ~500
Mg 1320
phosphate 56 ppb
Any ideas? Do you think the hermits are the problem? They haven't bothered any other corals in the tank (and my husband really likes the zebra hermits - he wants us to get some more of them so I really hope it's not them). Some hitchhiker that I haven't discovered yet? A disease? Low nitrate? High phosphate?
Please help!