I'm losing my prized Favia!!! Is it the Filefish or...?

[fishytime]

They do kinda look like bite marks....You probably know, but lps are really susceptible to infections...keep an eye on it and if it were me I would dip it....I would also stand vigil by the tank and see if it is the Filefish....hopefully he's not the culprit....I know what its like to have a fish that is a coral muncher

[fishytime]

You could try placing a strawberry type basket over it too

[Myka]

Thanks for the help guys! Crappy thing is that I'm working 12 hour days right now, so I don't have any time to watch the Filefish.

This particular Filefish is supposed to be fairly reef-safe usually going after anemones if anything. It is definitely suspect, but I haven't seen him do it! Grr...

My sump isn't a safe place for fish because neither of my pumps (skimmer and return) have any protection on the intakes. I should look into that for situations just like this...

Good call on dipping. All I have is TMCC though, and I haven't found that LPS do well with an iodine based dip. What do you think Doug?

When I did the water change lastnight I moved the Favia over between the (3) Jawfish burrows hoping that if it is the Filefish that the Jawfish may (unknowingly) protect it.

I'm not quite giving the whole story here either though...it's kinda long. So there are other reasons to suspect the water, and not just the Filefish. I recently started using carbon and Zeolites on the tank too. My tank has had a lot of changes in the last month.

[fishytime]

TMCC is what Ive been using for my dip.....Ive never had an issue with it....I suppose it could be the change in water chemistry.....thats what I think happened when I had my little lps die-off a couple months back(I switched from pre-made Ca and Mg to dosing Randy's)... Hope you get it figured out Mindy

[Myka]

Thanks Doug.

So today upon very close inspection I notice that 6 out of my 7 brain corals are exhibiting this bite mark condition, although the Favia is by far in the worst condition.

I posted a similar thread on the Zeo forums, and a couple people (including lobsterboy from here) have reported similar conditions with their LPS when they first introduced Zeolites due to the nutrients getting lowered too quickly. They have recommended a spurt of heavy Coral Vitalizer dosing, and to hold off dosing Coral Snow until things improve.

It looks like the Filefish might be innocent! I hope so! Even though my boyfriend has named him F'ugly, F'ugly is a pretty cool fish!