JF Solar Flare - help needed

[Butuz]

Guys, need your advice. All my corals are doing well (sps, monti, soft, torch, etc), but I just noticed something strange with my JF Solar Flare (got him about a month or so ago). My other sps are encrusting really well at the base, but with this guy I didn’t notice that its base is thinning, looks like its dead (but its not bleached or white). The top of the frag has great color and constant polyp extension. Almost like a stump area of the tree is dead but the top is doing great. What may be causing this? Should I just cut the healthy top and reglue on a plug?

 

[RussiReef]

Check for AEFW or other pests.

 

[TexasTodd]

Is it getting enough flow? Looks like it's kind of down in a blocked off area by rocks.
For whatever reason, my JFSF frag gave me more headaches then any other. It had great color but zero growth for months. Fell off a couple times, I finally glued that half dead leftover almost lying down expecting it to die. About 6 months later started to encrust and now is taking off. High light and fairly high flow.

 

[Anirban]

Dont worrry its alive. Like the other poster said they love flow and light. If you provide those two it will do grow and hold the colour. Mine never encrust a lot but it grows quite well.

 

[Jettareefer223]

I’m not seeing anything wrong in the photos. Have you checked your Alk lately and are you running low nutrients? IME the solar flare is finicky in terms of mille’s can’t tell you why and it was one of the first that I ever struggled with in nearly 20 years. All I have left with my longterm ongoing black bug battle is 1/8” microscopic nub of my once 3” mini colony. Most of my mille’s were completely untouched.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

I would leave it alone. Looks like it’s healthy and once it takes off it will encrust down to the rock work on its own. Cutting it and remounting it could irritate it and slow it down.

 

[SeaDweller]

I would leave it alone. Looks like it’s healthy and once it takes off it will encrust down to the rock work on its own. Cutting it and remounting it could irritate it and slow it down.

Yeah, I agree. It looks like it recovered and is growing its base again. You can tell that that area is fatter than the dead skeleton. Leave it be.

 

[TX_Punisher]

Is that epoxy it’s sitting on top of? Or glued down with? If so, the heat generated by drying epoxy killed off the base leaving the top portion alone to regenerate.

 

[Jimmy Elder]

Solar Flare will sit dormant for a extended period of time and then boom. It will grow like a weed. Just wait.