What is eating my cyphastrea?

[jeffchapok]

I picked this Meteor Shower up about a week ago.

Last night I noticed that something appears to have been chewing on it, mostly along the left edge.

All I have in the way of inverts are mostly turbo snails, blue legged hermits, a couple of red legged hermits, a small tuxedo urchin and maybe one or two emerald crabs. Plus a micro brittle star with most of his legs chewed off (Stumpy is his name).

I suspect the turbo snails, as they are the only things I see around that area most of the time. But I'm sure this is going on overnight, so who knows?

Who would you suspect and is there anything I can do to prevent it short of removing all of the offenders?

This also happened to this montipora, which was stripped completely to the skeleton overnight some months back.

I keep a pretty healthy population of snails, as I'm still overcoming a pretty bad GHA outbreak. It's much better, but there's still plenty to keep everyone fed.

 

[DSC reef]

The cyphastrea looks like recession similar to a chalice where the flesh pits like that then peels off. I've lost a large chalice colony and the flesh looked the same. My loss was from a large alkalinity swing.

 

[El_Guapo13]

I picked this Meteor Shower up about a week ago.

Last night I noticed that something appears to have been chewing on it, mostly along the left edge.

All I have in the way of inverts are mostly turbo snails, blue legged hermits, a couple of red legged hermits, a small tuxedo urchin and maybe one or two emerald crabs. Plus a micro brittle star with most of his legs chewed off (Stumpy is his name).

I suspect the turbo snails, as they are the only things I see around that area most of the time. But I'm sure this is going on overnight, so who knows?

Who would you suspect and is there anything I can do to prevent it short of removing all of the offenders?

This also happened to this montipora, which was stripped completely to the skeleton overnight some months back.

I keep a pretty healthy population of snails, as I'm still overcoming a pretty bad GHA outbreak. It's much better, but there's still plenty to keep everyone fed.

One possibility is that there is an unseen pest hitchhiker that is eating your corals. From the list you gave though, most people on here would probably single out the two Emerald Crabs, although people have different experiences with Emeralds as some never have them eat their corals, like myself. I have no problems with my Emerald. Now, I have heard both here on R2R and on other sites that it is mostly the males who would go and eat corals, while females for the most part won't.

I also would not suspect the Turbos, as I have never heard of them eating corals, just bulldozing through threm and dislodging them.

What about fish? Do you have any fish in the tank and if so can you list them?

 

[Saltyreef]

+1 for alk.
Check your water parameters and let us know. Usually for me my LPS start showing skeleton during low alk events or too much swinging.
Below 7 you have to keep an eye on it.

 

[El_Guapo13]

One possibility is that there is an unseen pest hitchhiker that is eating your corals. From the list you gave though, most people on here would probably single out the two Emerald Crabs, although people have different experiences with Emeralds as some never have them eat their corals, like myself. I have no problems with my Emerald. Now, I have heard both here on R2R and on other sites that it is mostly the males who would go and eat corals, while females for the most part won't.

I also would not suspect the Turbos, as I have never heard of them eating corals, just bulldozing through threm and dislodging them.

What about fish? Do you have any fish in the tank and if so can you list them?

Forgot to mention it could just be tissue recession, which could be cause by parameters not being right, a large swing in parameters, disease, something repeatedly rubbing against it and aggravating it, being at war with another nearby coral, etc.

 

[jeffchapok]

The cyphastrea looks like recession similar to a chalice where the flesh pits like that then peels off. I've lost a large chalice colony and the flesh looked the same. My loss was from a large alkalinity swing.

This is what led me to believe it's a bite as opposed to recession, but I can't rule it out. That, plus the fact that my monti was literally wiped out overnight.

My Alk was 8.9 the last time I checked it, but that was a week and a half ago. I'll check it tonight.

There's no other coral remotely close to it but a Kenya tree.

Thanks for the ideas guys!

 

[jeffchapok]

What about fish? Do you have any fish in the tank and if so can you list them?

2 clowns, flame hawk, royal gramma, blue devil damsel, 6-line, and a Randall's goby.

 

[nereefpat]

Is it getting too much light where it is?

 

[Pdash]

A monti isn't generally going to be wiped out over night by a pest, and your cyphasresa wasn't wiped out over night so the cases are not analogous. Besides that most coral pests are specific to one type of coral so it isn't likely they were killed by the same pest. Looks (sounds like in the case of the monti) like tissue recession, and likely the result of issues with your water parameters. Edit: could be a light issue as well I guess. The monti/cyph both look pale/unhealthy, and not like thriving corals being eaten by something.

You need to test and eliminate possibilities, instead of just jumping to the conclusion that its pests.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

That looks like an unhappy cyphastrea. I have about 10 different types of cyphastrea in my frag tank. The ones that have been under my care for years look good and grow under most conditions. Recently added frags however show similar responses to what you are showing after parameter and nutrient instability. The long term residents seem to be hardier and are more able to roll with it knowing that things will get better, where as recently added frags are more likely to show tissue recession similar to what you are showing.

Another cyphastrea reaction is when the polyps turn white and the tissue between the polyps goes translucent and dies, that is from salinity way on the high side. An incident with my daily AWC system taught me that

Dennis

Dennis

 

[DSC reef]

This is what led me to believe it's a bite as opposed to recession, but I can't rule it out. That, plus the fact that my monti was literally wiped out overnight.

My Alk was 8.9 the last time I checked it, but that was a week and a half ago. I'll check it tonight.

There's no other coral remotely close to it but a Kenya tree.

Thanks for the ideas guys!

That looks like flesh peeling. Heres a pic of the chalice I lost, it was far more degraded but you get the idea