Since I can’t see well, I need some help identifying a problem with a Millepora frag.

[A_Blind_Reefer]

So this Mille started growing a little nub on the left side that didn’t have any polyps. It has slowly grown and has taken over quite a bit of the frag. From what I understand it isn’t a shading issue even though it appears to be growing on the shaded portion of the frag. The encrusting area and tips supposedly appear healthy. Typically with rtn or stn algae starts growing on the exposed skeleton. This is different in that it sounds like it’s something smooth is growing over the the tissue as opposed to just death and tissue loss and there is no algae growth at all. I’m told it looks like the coral tissue is starting to grow over some of the affected area. Anyway, I’m looking for help identifying what’s going on so that I can try to remedy it. From what I’m understanding, it looks like I could break off the frag and the encrusting area below the base isn’t affected yet. Any help is appreciated. I’m not a noob, I just can’t see anymore but I know I’ll get asked about my parameters. They are, and have been rock solid. 1.026sg, 1350-1425mg, 425-450ca, 7.76-8.11dkh, 7.9-8.28ph, 77-78temp, phosphate 0.10, nitrate 10, lighting is t5/led hybrid don’t care about par, very high flow.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Bump

 

[Dburr1014]

Hi, I read this this morning and don't really have an answer. Just thought I would answer now that I see you bumped it.
I have seen this a couple times in my system. I want to say it may eventually heal itself but fraging of the healthy part and discarding the effected piece may be quicker.
It could be a pathogen that a dip can solve but by the pic, looks pretty well encrusted to the rock.

Maybe someone else can chime in that has seen this.

Good luck, op

 

[Cell]

Hard to believe it has nothing to do with the shade, perhaps not the root cause but rather an effect given it seems confined to shaded areas.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Hi, I read this this morning and don't really have an answer. Just thought I would answer now that I see you bumped it.
I have seen this a couple times in my system. I want to say it may eventually heal itself but fraging of the healthy part and discarding the effected piece may be quicker.
It could be a pathogen that a dip can solve but by the pic, looks pretty well encrusted to the rock.

Maybe someone else can chime in that has seen this.

Good luck, op

Thanks for the response. I was thinking about breaking it off and just letting the encrusting area grow out. I just need to find someone to make sure there isn’t anything left in the encrusting part. I could try a dip on what I break off but I’m not sure if it’s something a dip could take care of as it doesn’t sound like anything I’ve encountered before.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Hard to believe it has nothing to do with the shade, perhaps not the root cause but rather an effect given it seems confined to shaded areas.

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking the same. It’s just the way it was described as smooth and without remnants of the old corallites. This is from someone else’s eyes that’s not a reefer though. Can you make out any old corallites? Maybe they didn’t understand what I was describing, it sounded more like something growing over the coral as opposed to just skeleton but again that’s from a non-reefer.

 

[Jimbo]

Looks like it’s getting hit with some high laminar flow on the one side. Possible?

 

[Dburr1014]

Thinking more, the picture looks like coral warfare in a way.
2 sps next to each other grow this wall of no man's land. Now you take away 1 of the two. This is what it would look like in the picture you posted. A sps that looks like it battled with another sps.

 

[homer1475]

Thinking more, the picture looks like coral warfare in a way.
2 sps next to each other grow this wall of no man's land. Now you take away 1 of the two. This is what it would look like in the picture you posted. A sps that looks like it battled with another sps.

Exactly what I was thinking when I saw it. I have plenty of spots on corals that are ware fairing now that my tank is grown in, that looks exactly like that.

Is there anything close by that could be reaching out and stinging it?

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Well I’m not sure I’ll ever know exactly what it was. The only coral near it is a red monti cap that’s about five inches away. It’s not getting directly blasted by flow. I have Millepora colonies in the tank with a ton more shading underneath and they still have tissue and polyps on the underside. I broke it off the rock and had help cleaning up around the remaining encrusting area. My non-reefer assistant was able to pry pieces of the growth away and expose a normal looking skeleton underneath. The growth was thin and brittle and felt exactly like coralline algae in my hands. It was easily crushed into fine flakes with my fingers. I’m wondering if I have a pest eating the tissue with coralline growing over the dead area. All the growth was removed and the chunk I broke off was dipped and glued to a piece of rubble. Thanks for all the input and suggestions.

 

[Dburr1014]

Well I’m not sure I’ll ever know exactly what it was. The only coral near it is a red monti cap that’s about five inches away. It’s not getting directly blasted by flow. I have Millepora colonies in the tank with a ton more shading underneath and they still have tissue and polyps on the underside. I broke it off the rock and had help cleaning up around the remaining encrusting area. My non-reefer assistant was able to pry pieces of the growth away and expose a normal looking skeleton underneath. The growth was thin and brittle and felt exactly like coralline algae in my hands. It was easily crushed into fine flakes with my fingers. I’m wondering if I have a pest eating the tissue with coralline growing over the dead area. All the growth was removed and the chunk I broke off was dipped and glued to a piece of rubble. Thanks for all the input and suggestions.

Your welcome, good luck with it.
Happy Reefing