Bleaching (acro) from the bottom up

[Miemaes]

Hi! I’ve bought a few clippings of corals off of a local reefer which I temporarily “parked” in my nano tank until my larger tank is mature enough. All of them are doing well and I’ve spotted new growth on them. However, the one in the attached picture is bleaching at the bottom. It’s been like this for a while and hard to determine if it’s moving up. I have a similar one in a different color which is parked right next to it and is doing fine. Does anyone know what is causing the bleaching? Also… what is the name of this coral? Thanks!

 

[pochaxoo]

That is a great looking Acropora and I am guessing a deepwater variety, maybe ORA Purple Nana? In terms of what is making the coral STN there can be a multitude of reasons: water chemistry, some other coral irratating the base of this coral, a pest of some sort eating and irratating it, flow too low, light intensity not quite right, harmful bacteria. The usual interogation that happens on R2R is trying to get specific idea of what conditions the coral is under right now like Salinity, Alk, Nitrates, Phosphates etc... You may have your parameters in the right range but if they are different than the previous home for these corals they can get stressed and have this die off reaction.
Taking this slow on the questions instead of hitting you with everything someone would need to know I will start with the following:

1) Are there other happy Acropora in the tank before introducing these guys?
2) Is there plenty of flow on these corals?
3) If you take a magnifying glass or super zoom into the base of the coral with a macro lens can you see any pests near the base eating...like flatworms?

There are a million more questions we can go to next if the answer to 1 is no and will start looking closely at water chemistry. If there are flatworms (#3) on the coral and they weren't killed by a dip it likely won't matter what the water parameters are.

Let me know and I am sure others will chime in with all the other things they need to know to give a diagnosis.
Good luck either way.

 

[Sabellafella]

Hi! I’ve bought a few clippings of corals off of a local reefer which I temporarily “parked” in my nano tank until my larger tank is mature enough. All of them are doing well and I’ve spotted new growth on them. However, the one in the attached picture is bleaching at the bottom. It’s been like this for a while and hard to determine if it’s moving up. I have a similar one in a different color which is parked right next to it and is doing fine. Does anyone know what is causing the bleaching? Also… what is the name of this coral? Thanks!

This can either stop on its own, or you can clean it up by taking the piece out and cutting the dead portion off.

Slow tissue necrosis can happen for a variety of reasons. Shading from focused lighting, lack of or too much water movement, pests- worms-algae. The overall coral looks healthy to me, just dying back for reasons I can't really tell. But if you can address some of the stuff I mentioned above you should be alright!

 

[UMALUM]

This could be a result of the original cut and have nothing to do with your #s at all. I would superglue "gel" the base of the coral just slightly overlapping the tissue. Also an iodine dip wouldn't hurt if you have some.

 

[Miemaes]

That is a great looking Acropora and I am guessing a deepwater variety, maybe ORA Purple Nana? In terms of what is making the coral STN there can be a multitude of reasons: water chemistry, some other coral irratating the base of this coral, a pest of some sort eating and irratating it, flow too low, light intensity not quite right, harmful bacteria. The usual interogation that happens on R2R is trying to get specific idea of what conditions the coral is under right now like Salinity, Alk, Nitrates, Phosphates etc... You may have your parameters in the right range but if they are different than the previous home for these corals they can get stressed and have this die off reaction.
Taking this slow on the questions instead of hitting you with everything someone would need to know I will start with the following:

1) Are there other happy Acropora in the tank before introducing these guys?
2) Is there plenty of flow on these corals?
3) If you take a magnifying glass or super zoom into the base of the coral with a macro lens can you see any pests near the base eating...like flatworms?

There are a million more questions we can go to next if the answer to 1 is no and will start looking closely at water chemistry. If there are flatworms (#3) on the coral and they weren't killed by a dip it likely won't matter what the water parameters are.

Let me know and I am sure others will chime in with all the other things they need to know to give a diagnosis.
Good luck either way.

Thanks for your feedback! I did feel that it was doing well until I noticed the lighter base. My parameters are in line with the overal needs and all of the other acros that were added at the same time are doing really well so it’s something isolated to this one. I can’t really see any pests so I’m guessing light or flow? I did cut off the affected area and dipped the coral before attaching it to the rock again. Thx for telling me which type it is. Maybe I can narrow down what it might not like.

 

[Miemaes]

This can either stop on its own, or you can clean it up by taking the piece out and cutting the dead portion off.

Slow tissue necrosis can happen for a variety of reasons. Shading from focused lighting, lack of or too much water movement, pests- worms-algae. The overall coral looks healthy to me, just dying back for reasons I can't really tell. But if you can address some of the stuff I mentioned above you should be alright!

I did not know that focused light might also cause this. I’ll experiment with the flow and lighting as this is the only thing I can think of that might be the cause. Thx so much!

 

[Miemaes]

This could be a result of the original cut and have nothing to do with your #s at all. I would superglue "gel" the base of the coral just slightly overlapping the tissue. Also an iodine dip wouldn't hurt if you have some.

Thanks. I did cut the coral above the white tissue with a disinfected cutter and then did an iodine dip. I’m keeping a close eye on it now to see if the newly clipped piece will show any bleaching over the next couple of days