*Birdsnest and acro. STN or evil sexy shrimp? Devastation Continues!!*

Ok I noticed at the base of two BN that I have there is bare skeleton. Above that the polyps are irtritated. Above that the coral seems totally fine and growing. I recently added some sexy shrimp and they frequent the bases of some of the BN. So is it some sort fo STN or are the sexys having a snack? Will it heal up?

EDIT: Params
Alk 10
Calcium 420
trates, trites, amo, and phos all are zero
salinity is 1.026
pH always seems to be about 8.0
uh temp is stable between 80-82

There are a few photos in my bicube HQI thread

 

IMO birds nests slowly die from the bottom up, i would say they are stressing from lighting or water movement or quality. and the sexy's are just eating the slime they are throwing off and not the problem at all, the sexys are actually doing what an acro crab would be doing, if one was living in the BN

 

See though, all of the other birdsnests are toatally fine and growing fast. They are all beginning to encrust as well (including the ones we are talking about)! Thats why I think it might be the sexys. They dont like any food I give them and the first thing they did was go right to the coral when i put them in.

 

If they were fine prior to the sexies then the sexies are probably the problem. I doubt they are attacking the polyps but it is possible since they have been known to tear GSP apart.

 

So your alkalinity is dkH or 3.5 meq/L? Did I do the math right here? I think so -



4 - 4.5 meq/L is happy birds nest territory. I just went through a bought with mine and low alk while I camped out at work for 2 weeks and the alk dropped way down. It looked / still looks a bit like what you are describing.

I say get the alk up.

matt

 

Do you have a pic of the BN? I have not had issues with my BN with alk down to 8. Your species could be sensitive that way though.

 

Yeah its about 3.5 meq. I used to keep it up near 12 (dkh). Sometimes it was maybe more like 14 lol and I never saw anything negative. It happened over night, probably the first or second night I got the sexys. It seems to have stopped so maybe they wont continue. I will try to raise the alk over the weekend. So is it maybe a combo? like 10dkh alk making it unhappy then sexys taking advantage? Honestly I wouldnt mind if they tear up my GSP. its growing too fast lol

 

Definite possibility

 

The timing is weird. Keep us posted!

 

Well I won't be back home until Monday! I hope all is well