Monti Scrape Marks

[Trenton Henderson]

Hey all,

I have a Slow Burn Montipora frag that I placed on the rock a couple weeks ago, and it appears that it’s loving life with great polyp extension and a plating ring the seems to get bigger by the day. I have noticed several times, however, that there are small scrape marks on the top/edges to the skeleton.

I have checked for Nudi’s, but I have not seen any. Also, the tissue on the underside looks good. Any of the marks heal within a week, so it’s healthy for sure. The only thing I can think of is that I have a few emerald crabs. Two are small and one is pretty big and has one claw. He’s an avid algae consumer, but he’s a pretty aggressive eater. I’m thinking he scrapes it thinking it’s a rock to get algae off of it. Does that sound reasonable?

Here is a picture (sorry it’s bad) with the fresh scrape in the red circle and the nearly-healed scrapes in the red square from a few days ago.

Also, there are a few pale spots on the rim where my finger grabbed it to attach it to the rocks that haven’t colored back up. I assume I should probably wear gloves to avoid that next time?

Thanks everyone!

 

[Dburr1014]

Hey all,

I have a Slow Burn Montipora frag that I placed on the rock a couple weeks ago, and it appears that it’s loving life with great polyp extension and a plating ring the seems to get bigger by the day. I have noticed several times, however, that there are small scrape marks on the top/edges to the skeleton.

I have checked for Nudi’s, but I have not seen any. Also, the tissue on the underside looks good. Any of the marks heal within a week, so it’s healthy for sure. The only thing I can think of is that I have a few emerald crabs. Two are small and one is pretty big and has one claw. He’s an avid algae consumer, but he’s a pretty aggressive eater. I’m thinking he scrapes it thinking it’s a rock to get algae off of it. Does that sound reasonable?

Here is a picture (sorry it’s bad) with the fresh scrape in the red circle and the nearly-healed scrapes in the red square from a few days ago.

Also, there are a few pale spots on the rim where my finger grabbed it to attach it to the rocks that haven’t colored back up. I assume I should probably wear gloves to avoid that next time?

Thanks everyone!

Hard to say from that picture. Can you get a better picture? As far as the gloves comment, maybe you were just a little rough with it? I rarely ever wear gloves and I have never had a problem with tissue loss where I touched them.

 

[Trenton Henderson]

Hard to say from that picture. Can you get a better picture? As far as the gloves comment, maybe you were just a little rough with it? I rarely ever wear gloves and I have never had a problem with tissue loss where I touched them.

This is about as good as I can get it:

It’s just a small chunk.