Tissue recession on birdsnest...

[Quinn]

Over the last two days, my birdnest has been progressively losing tissue on one branch. It started on a single tip and has since spread through perhaps 10% of the coral. If it continues like this it will soon have taken an entire large branch. I thought it might be RTN but apparently RTN is much faster? Regardless, I am wondering if I should frag off the bad parts and try to salvage the rest?

Levels are all acceptable. The other day my temperature hit 86°F, another possible cause is a piece of Montipora sp. that fell into the birdsnest and stayed there for a day before I got around to removing it... not sure why that would only affect one branch though...

[christyf5]

Most likely the collision of the two corals. I've noticed that montipora is funny, only the outer rim does the damage to the other coral, or only the outer rim gets damaged when in contact with another coral, depending on the species of the other coral. It may have mechanically damaged the tissue as well. Have you tried crazy glueing it?

Christy

[Quinn]

I was considering that. Do you think that is the way to go? Since I posted this originally, the damage has spread noticeably, perhaps 5mm.

[christyf5]

Well at this point I would try something. Most likely it will just keep going. How big is it? Can you try making a frag of it and glueing it to some rubble rock or something?


Christy

[sumpfinfishe]

I agree with Christy, try to break off the damaged area or glue the small frag that's leftover to a small chunk of rock. Also place the infected coral in a high flow location to help flush away mucus and dead tissue.

Goodluck,

[Quinn]

Ended up fragging it into one large apparently healthy piece, one large piece with some damage, and a number of small pieces with significant damage. As of this morning, the small pieces appear to be essentially dead and the two large pieces are showing tell-tale damage. Not holding out much hope at this point.