Is This Bad Or Normal For Coral?

[hubbard_shark]

My young finger corals is doing great in my tank, positioned in good waterflow, out all the way, calcium lvs great, but at night, only night i notice that this happens. during the day, it returns to its normal form

and this is just to one of the frags of the young finger. is this normal? like is it trying to grow, or is it signs of dying? please let me know thanks

 

[SkiFletch]

Most photosynthetic corals will shrink drastically at night. All mine do...

 

[hubbard_shark]

what im referring too is the orange part? it looks like extended tentacles or such

 

[Mr Miagi]

I dont think that orange part is your coral at all, but rather something preying on your coral. Could be anything from a NUdi to a snail, I cant see cause the picture isnt the best. Doesn the orange object move? Can you try and describe it?

 

[hubbard_shark]

it doesnt look at all like a nudi or snail, any invert for that matter. its orange, and looks like it has branched off coral arms like. at night it becomes visible, but during the day, its not out much, and the coral is out. i checked it tonight when i got home, and it seems to be getting bigger, anyone know please help asap.

 

[hubbard_shark]

so ive watched it, and noticed that this orange "thing" stays under the rock during the day, then at night when the light goes out, it moves up to the top on my bit of coral, each day it covers more and more, then goes below again during the day. PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT IT IS AND WHAT I CAN DO!! Its killing my coral thanks

 

[Pheonix]

clearly its something thats bad for your corels and as you want to keep the corels it needs to be removed!!

it moves so its alive, i go with some random sort of nudi
is the piece of rock it hides under removable?
do you thing if you used something like a syphon you would be able to suck it up?
if you can capture it might be worth taking it to your local LFS is they are up on their marines see if they can tell you what it is? if not take loads of pics and im sure we will find out what it is.

although i try not to kill anything in my tank sometimes if its destroying your tank it must be done, if all else fails and you cant catch it, nuke it.

 

[hubbard_shark]

sure enough the orange things are nudibranchs, a kind ive never seen before, even in my marine bio classes in college, so im gonna check on it. but the good news is a got the little bastards. went with ur idea pheonix, and grab me a turkey baster, and sucked them up in it. took me a couple suctions, put got both, there ended up being two, got the other beofre he started on my other coral. so im relieved, thx pheonix as well as everyone else. ill post pics of them soon, there crazy

 

[SkiFletch]

oooh, nasty coral-eating nudibranch. There are probably thousands if not more different species of nudibranch in the ocean so i'm not surpised you haven't seen it before . Keep an eye out for more of them... They may have laid eggs or hidden, so you may not be out of the woods yet. If they re-appear, it may be wise to take the rock with the corals out and do a quick flatworm exit dip to kill the little buggers.

 

[hubbard_shark]

if they do reappear, whats the best way to do a dip like that? and with what?

 

[Mr Miagi]

If they re-appear, it may be wise to take the rock with the corals out and do a quick flatworm exit dip to kill the little buggers.

Flatworm exit is a tried and well used product, if you can find it.

 

[SkiFletch]

if they do reappear, whats the best way to do a dip like that? and with what?

There will be directions on the bottle