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Hard to assess a coral out of water but from missing tissue, its either bleaching or suspect, Soft tissue nicrosis. Some causes and things to check are:
The best way I've heard to control sponge growth at this point is to use a steel straw to scrape and siphon out the sponge you want to remove. Sometimes you can create bad conditions for them and kill them off that way, but that's typically much harder and not always effective.
Some other sponge removal methods:Other suggestions include exposing the sponge to air (obviously not a guaranteed solution, and definitely not viable for this situation); hydrogen peroxide dipping the sponge (again, not viable here); injecting the sponge with hydrogen peroxide, vinegar, boiling water, or air; microbubbles in the display; and a few more. Predation is not usually a good solution for this issueBasically, if the sponges have enough food and enough trace elements (which for most sponges includes silicates) to meet their needs, then you’ll see their populations booming.
If you can figure out what’s allowing them to thrive in your tank, then you can deal with that root cause and get rid of them.
Yeah, the overwhelming majority of sponges are harmless in our tanks - a handful of sponges (like the infamous Terpios hoshinota) can, unfortunately, grow over and smother live corals though. They're very rare in our tanks, but I've seen a handful of different cases of it happening.I have not seen everything but I have never seen sponge compete with live coral flesh in 15 years. Just never. I have a ton of sponge all over my system but I have never seen it predatory on live flesh.
Just my observations; your situation could be different.