Lobo has a hole! advice please?
 

http://i882.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1268353383

My purple lobophytum has developed a nasty hole. It is a bit of a confusing photo but that lobe below the whitish section is halfway disconnected.

What are your thoughts? Should I do surgery or let it run its course or something else?

Did the hole happen over a few days or just suddenly appear?

It took a few days I guess? I am not certain. I don't think it got chomped but who knows?

I think is either something is chomping away at it
or it is separating itself as a form of reproduction ??

I've found lobophytums to be as tough as nails.
It looks like somebody took a bite out of it. My foxface would sometimes do that. What kind of fish do you have in there?

When you say it's developed a nasty hole - that section that's exposed isn't hollow, is it?

Mitch

It is self fragging. My devils claw does it on a regular basis...baby devils all over my tank now!!! You can cut it off or let it finish, either way has been fine for mine.

Lobophytums typically reproduce by broadcast methods. They can form daughter colonies, but it is after some type of damage has occurred previously.
Here are a couple of articles that discuss that:

http://www.int-res.com/articles/meps/12/m012p137.pdf
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2008/10/aafeature1

Any chance that something was nipping at your coral, Carmen?

Mitch

Alright thanks for the advice everyone. I guess my plan will be to let it run its course for now and let the lobo drop that lobe. Then I will trim the white area off the dropped lobe and rubberband it to a rock. If the white patch on the mother continues to grow at some point later I will trim off the affected area. My concern is that the white area is either a fungal or bacterial infection.

I will keep you updated on the progress of this coral.

Interesting theory Mitch. I am quite sure there is no nipping however the mother colony is very large and my theory is that is the reason for the fragging. I suppose it is really the same in that the mother colony appears to be parting with pieces because it is "overgrown" for the space that it is living in... possibly irritated on edges from other corals or rubbing on rocks??? The mother colony fragged itself even more so when it was stressed from a tank move. Either way it frags it's pieces and full recovers in those places. The frags if attached to rock appear to heal just fine and grow normally.

Here is my theory. It was one of these guys. My bet is on Patrick!


http://www.freewebs.com/thejackshowz/spongebob_4.jpg

Ah yeah the dumb pink guy is evil!

Well the Lobo finally dropped the lobe that was hanging by a thread. Mom is healing up nicely. The fragged bit did not open polyps the last few days while still attached and then laying on the sand. I thought it was dieing for a minute there. But since I rubber-banded it to a rock and stuck it in the refuge it has tentatively started to open up. Yah!
http://i882.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1270314117