is this killing my blasto?

Could something be picking at it? It sort of looks like the blasto has been shredded

J

 

I had a blasto that did the same thing. Started with one polyp, slowly spread to the surrounding polyps and so on. I lost all polyps and was left with a skeleton in the end.



Not sure if it's the same with you or not...

Z

 

I have considered picking at the "thing"... thinking even harder of it now...

Something? I suppose... 1 bicolor blenny, 2 clowns, 1 6linewrasse, host of snails and blue legged hermits, 2 pepp shrimp introduced after the fact... something unknown maybe?

from what i can see, the blastos fleshy, colorful part seems intact (allbeit shrunken and wrinkly), the white thing is looking craterish... could be pecked at... possibly... no other coral is in striking distance.



is there a consensus of picking at the "thing"? The darn thing is epoxied in place... removing the frag will be arduous. For a start, I might just pick at what I can reach with it in place... :-/


I have another thread about some sponge crap coming off a hammer... these are from the same eBay seller... http://www.3reef.com/forums/id/some-type-sponge-71677.html

that detail makes me think crusty sponge... but I don't even know if such a thing even exists...

 

happen to have any pics of this?

 

I am with McKenzie. Something is pecking at it. It doesn't look like an alien growth to me, it looks like its flesh is tore/rotting/receding.
My first thought would be the peps, but you said they were added after.
The next would be the blenny. Bi-colors are known to pick at corals occasionally, specially LPS.

 

i can totally see why this might be pecking and I will specifically watch this blenny (I have no current memories of it being this way in-front of me)

But I want to make sure we all see that this weird growth thing has been steadily growing. Rather quickly, I might add. From what I can tell, it grew into this shape.

 

Then pull it, see what happens. Can't do any harm that way, the area is already under attack.

 

What became of this?

 

:-/ ugh


I still don't really know...

but here's my update. I pulled the frag and looked at it under a magnifying glass. I then poked at the growth. It felt crusty, bone like. It broke (the growth) so I pulled it off, slowly.

The blasto head it was over... so it was like, splitting or something. I could make out the entire round head of the blasto under the growth and yet, it was also growing up onto the growth.

The blasto under the growth, while looking dank, was whole. The blasto part that was growing on the growth looked more nipped at.

I do have an updated pic of this but forgot to upload it, will do that later.


After looking at it closely and picking parts of it off... I am maybe 65% sure that what this actually is, is the skeleton trying to grow outward so that new blasto growth will be facing up (skywards, right) and that I shouldn't have picked at it at all...

I will continue monitoring bc I'm not convinced that's the case, just what it looks like up close.

I did discover a new tiny blasto baby on the other side where there is no weird growth. That would be on the top skyward side while all the growth is on the bottom, facing the substrate, side.


I will continue updating as I see change.

 

Here it is pulled out





little piece I broke off



Two days later back in tank






as compared to original pic: