Duncan, Hammer Coral, and now Frogspawn look to be dying from base

CrimsonTide · Feb 16, 2021

Over_Engineered said:
Pictures of Chitons sure do look like what i found. Do you think they could be eating a frogspawn or hammer coral flesh?

From what I understand there are a lot of different species but most eat algae so I do not know the answer. But that's what it looks like to me. Could be something different. Ive never experienced them but they are sold as a cleanup crew member.

JGT · Feb 16, 2021

Won’t be chitons. They are herbivores.

Over_Engineered · Feb 16, 2021

JGT said:
Won’t be chitons. They are herbivores.

ok good to know. thanks.

uhgster1 · Feb 16, 2021

I went through a spat with my euphyllia where the started to deflate and recede into their skeletons. My nitrates and phosphates were undetectable, magnesium was around 1000, and I couldn’t remember the last time I supplemented iodine. I got my mag back to 1400, doubled up on the feeding to bring nitrates and phosphate up and started dosing Red Sea trace iodine and all of the euphyllia bounced back better than before. I also dose micobacter clean once a week.

The frogspawn was almost completely gone. Hope that helps.

oreolk · Mar 12, 2021

SaltISlife said:
I heard peppermint sheimo eat lps. I unfortunatly dont have any peppermint shrimp. Just cleaner shrimp and my issue is affecting favia which are lps and shrimp dont eat brain corals i believe. More the wavy types like hammers and so forth.

I would be highely suspect its your peppermint shrimp.

Your issue might not be thst though. As thise dead skeletons look similar to the store i bougjt corals from that im now having issues with in my tank.

I think what you need to do is cstch the shrimp and put them in another tank for a good while and see if you keep losing heads of the hammer or not. If it stops then you know your problem is the shrimp. If it keeps progressing then it probly isnt them.

It sucks man. My tank is getting worse. I wish i could blame it on shrimp...

Try taking em out. See if it stops. If you dont have a second tank. Go to petco theyre doing 1$ per gallon. Get a little 10g or 20g put the shrimp in there. And wait. Again if it keeps happening. You know it isnt them.

Whats weird is the pics your showing. Is showing the corals base shrinking. Up into the head.. if it was the shrimp youd think its be shredded or have spots that are clearly being picked at.

PEPPERS ARE THE DEVIL!!!! I have a 10 gallon cube set up as a shrimp jail. They are no longer welcome on my reef.