Help! Something's Destroying My Monti!

[catran]

I saw this two days ago. It's like a worm that is burrowing underneath it. When I looked at it, the middle of it was all white. A closer look revealed what looked like some kind of sac. I pulled it off with the tweezers and the next day it was back. You can see in the pic where it destroyed a big portion of the middle before I caught it. Anyone know what it is and what I can do to stop it? Thanks, Cat

 

[GlassMunky]

no idea, but i gotta ask what kind of monti that is, i really like it, and the color

 

[catran]

I'm not sure, I got it for $7.00 because it looked like it wasn't doing to well. It actually was looking very good and spread a lot also, before this happened... It's hard to see the real color because it's close to the light. It's a deep purple. I think it looks sort of like a superman monti.

 

[jedi82knight]

That sucks!

About 3/4 down on this link, Coral Diseases and Parasites, is some info/pics that sounds similar...Burrowing worms. Hope this can at least help identify the problem. Wish I could help more.

Good luck Cat.

 

[catran]

Thanks jedi28knight! I'll read and see if it does help. I'll let you know.

 

[seafansar]

No clue what the worm was, but the monti might be a superman (if the polyps eventually turn red) or a purple haze.

 

[catran]

It was blueish/purple (very light when I got it, but it is a dark cranberry/ purple now. Small polyps are darker cranberry red but not a great contrast to the rest of the coral.

 

[twoclowns]

looks like a purple haze monti I have can never get a detailed pic due to the contrast of colors. It just blurrs

 

[catran]

twoclowns, I believe you are right! I googled purple haze monti and found 4 pics. 3 of them looked too blue, but one looked almost exactly the same. Thanks!

 

[jedi82knight]

Hi Cat. How is your monti doing?

 

[Redseamax401]

Had a friend that had the same problem. i believe it a Monti worm or PARASITES that eat only monti's and all other corals will be fine except monti's. What he had to do was dip the monti. And was fine but notice it was back. So the only way to get rid of them totally is to take out the monti and qt it and with in 4 to 5 month with no monti the monti eating PARASITES will die cause they can only survive from eating monti. thats why we have to be very careful getting corals from ppl that may have PARASITES in there tank. Hope that helped u.

 

[Reefmack]

There are Monti eating nudibranchs, but that sac you removed would seem to indicate something else.

 

[catran]

The rock is filled with holes and kind of brittle. The encrusting "sac" disappeared for a couple of days after I tried to ream out the holes with a piece of wire, but is now back. I've decided to break apart and frag the rock to try to remove anything that may be hiding inside. Doing this with a fresh water dip should eliminate the problem. I don't have a strong enough light in my qt tank to sustain it right now. I am starting a frag tank soon and it will be up ready to add corals in a few weeks.

 

[Robzilla]

You and your hitchikers! Is that evil looking demon worm still looting around?

 

[catran]

Yeah, lol! I have a couple of months to go til I set up my 29g frag tank and I wanted to be sure my corals are transferred over before I destroy the rockwork trying to get to him. I'm afraid I will disturb the sand bed and release too much bacteria that could hurt the corals. I just aquired some large colony's of hammer, frogspawn and one med/lrg toadstool. I am too afraid to do anything that might kill them!