Dying coral isn’t necessarily bad- (sps STN)

[Reefinmike]

My large ~8” blue digitata colony started to RTN a couple weeks ago. It lost ~50% of it’s flesh within 3 days, ~70% within a week. I immediately started looking at all the other corals and everyone else was looking great- including 3-4 smaller colonies of the same coral.

After realizing other corals weren’t affected I saw this for what it was- a beautiful part of a thriving reef. Allelopathy(coral warfare) was certainly a factor as other corals encroached however this digi has always overpowered any other montipora. I feel that the coral initiated a mass self destruct mode to kill off nutrient sapping, unproductive polyps deep within the shaded base of the coral.

It stopped receding, edges have healed and are growing back downward. The coral will likely branch back into itself creating a more rigid structure. Alternatively, another coral can creep in around the structure in the never ending struggle for light, flow and nutrients. In the end, I’m just watching liverock grow before my eyes. And that’s why I love the hobby.


Anyone else embrace natural reefkeeping? Let things duke it out with minimal nudging and pruning? I’d love to see pictures of your coral battlegrounds!

 

[Tim'sReef]

Nice tank! And nice way of looking at things. I try and do the same, even if something goes very wrong remember that it's part of nature an you are seeing something very few people have seen in real life.

 

[Reefinmike]

Following up a month later. Everything healed nicely leaving a bunch of 1-2” frags on the ends. Algae set in pretty quickly on the bare skeleton, critters course corrected and now the skeleton is looking like mature “liverock”. About a week ago I noticed another colony of the same coral doing the exact same thing!

My new reef(roughly 2x larger) is in place and ready for me to start moving livestock over. Whatever coral makes it over will have some breathing room for a short period.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Tank looks really good!!