Skeleton Recession on a duncan - Should I frag it?

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Empti

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My Duncans been the moodiest coral (~15ish corals mostly euphylia) in my whole tank (2 months old since swapping from old tank -params below) since I first got him, took ages to open. Lately once again he hasn't been opening but it was mostly one one side that had a bit of hair algae so I thought my new coral beauty angelfish may of been nibbling there. Past two days other side has opened less and I noticed on the side where I had previously used epoxy to secure him to rock there was skeletal bleaching. Today looking again the bleached section of skeleton had seemingly fallen off leaving a brown spot - with a brown hole of skeleton behind it where there was no epoxy. Thought on what may be the cause of this as I'm aware of tissue recession but to see skeleton fall away is confusing to me?

As a potential solution + wanted to anyways I was looking at fragging him into three frags (two branches + the base with the browning skeleton separate) would this accelerate decline of potentially the whole colony or save the branches from the skeleton recession.

Params
Alk 7.8
ph 8.2
Mg 1175 (increasing it now)
Ca 463
Salinity 1.024 (increasing to 1.026)
Ammonia/Nitrite/Phos 0
Nitrate 10

Duncan Front.jpg Duncan Side.jpg
 
Pictures under whiter light would be helpful.
That said, if you already thought about fragging it anyway, then certainly don't hesitate to do so. Next, I suggest using a good coral pest dip. From your description, it seems like something might have burrowed into the coral...
Whatever you do, keep an eye on all 3 frags and if you suspect brown jelly disease, give it the sniff test (trust me, if it has that bjd stink, there will be no question!) and if it's infected, throw it out.
 
I just looked at the photos again... you might try moving the toadstool away from your LPS. Sometime there is chemical warfare that can cause corals to decline...
The toadstool did shed about 2 weeks ago, that might have been it!
 

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