Reef Discussion

[Sarg]

Hi all, my scoly is in a bit of strife atm. It's mouth has been gaping for 2 days and the first day I noticed some stringy type crap behind the scoly, it seemed to be coming from the back. Now it appears its flesh it tearing away :( the scoly has been big and full since the day I put it in the tank. I feed it regularly normally prawn or fish.

I had moved it to an area that was directly under the light and in a bit more flow. It was also near a Goni but not touching. Interestingly the Goni had been receded and looking like dying also. The Goni has now regained its polyp extension now the scoly has been moved. They were probably 5-10cm apart.

Cal 420
Mag 1400
Alk 169 probably around 9ish
Phos .5
Nitrate 1ppm
Salinity had creeped up I must have stuffed the last wc it was at 1.029-30 which I am bringing down slowly maybe it wasn't quick enough! Probably around 1.026-7 after today's small exchange.

Any clues I'd say there is not much to do but cross the fingers :( I'm switching back to asw so I'm going to get some mixing for a small 50ltr change in the morning. If he holds up hopefully that may help.

 

[Sarg]

Oh I should mention that I lost a Ric two weeks ago for some unknown reason it deteriorated over a week and I removed it. Then my elegance receded and looked dodgy as and for a few days but recovered and is now back to being the size of a bread plate :)

I've also started dosing zeostart3 and zeo back. I "borrowed" some off vp to give it a test as phos control.

 

[Sarg]

His colour seems to be nothing more than a little blanket now. He still seem to have some control over his mouth but there are more tears appearing. There is a baby bristle star on it to :(

 

[chimaera]

Hmm not looking great ... but it still has plenty of flesh so has a decent chance of pulling through still. Does it eat if you target feed?

 

[daveH]

That's a real shame mate. It's such a pain when a coral starts to have trouble when all the parameters seem fine and all the other corals are thriving.
I hope it comes good for you.

 

[Sarg]

Thanks guys. I don't hold high hopes Unfortuneatly :( when I left this arvo it was looking worse. The yellow tang hovering above it made it wave like a banner at a football game and that alone was slightly tearing the flesh. It was eating fine and had a piece of prawn two days ago.

It is such a nice little coral not happy at all :(

 

[Buddy]

I dont know if this will help at all, my scoly was like that a while ago and I just let it be. One day I pointed a power head in a different direction which put more flow in the scollys direction, (not intentional) the next day it was all puffed up and looking nice again. I dont know if it was just a coincidence though. The scolly pretty much had no flow before I changed the flow.

 

[MagicJ]

Do you think it might have anything to do with this

I've also started dosing zeostart3 and zeo back. I "borrowed" some off vp to give it a test as phos control.

 

[Sarg]

I've moved it but I recon I am too late :( About to head inside and see.

 

[Sarg]

I don't think so MJ as the phos hasn't really changed to much as yet so I think there is still enough nutrient. I target feed to.

I'm half sure it was the change in his position. I rescaped a little and moved him and I didn't catch the signs quick enough.

 

[chrispc66]

I don't think high flow will be good for the coral in the condition it's in at this time. Try moving it to a quiet area in the DT in a semi shaded location and leave it alone for a while. Don't feed it.

I also don't think fleshy foods are ideal for these corals, after all, they wouldn't score this type of food in the wild. I keep plenty of LPS, some I've had for over six years, yes, they grow slowly, however I never feed any of them fleshy foods.

I feed corals like hammers, elegance, acans, scollys, fleshy brains, fungia, favia, a feed of spectrum every few days, (pumps off), or similar pellet and a little coral liquid food weekly before a water change. I currently use the Nutra Kol made in WA, its pretty awesome stuff.

The digestive tracts of LPS corals may not be able to cope with fleshy foods, and in the wild absorb most of what they need direct from the water.

Good luck, it would be a pity to loose such an awesome, (and expensive), coral.

 

[Ian G]

Pity, that's a nice scolly.

Do you keep detailed tank records? If so I would go back to the regime you had just before corals started getting dodgy. IE you recently started dosing so stop to see if it makes a difference, etc. What was your Phosphate level before dosing?

 

[Sarg]

I moved it yesterday its in the lowest flow I can find.

Maybe feeding it the prawn has damaged him killed by kindness as it did grab two small bits.

It's flesh is still torn and loose and mouth still gaping, time will tell I guess.

Ian the other Ric passed before I started dosing and the elegance I had been dosing but it came good again after two days and a water change with no change in the dosing.

Edit. It wasn't exy I brought it off a friend it's just awesome!

 

[chimaera]

Fingers crossed for you. Facing a similar issue myself at the moment ... I have 11 different acans, and one of them has suddenly started to recede and show skeleton over the last week. Still puffed up and covered it over at times, but while shrunken back the skeleton showing is growing.

 

[Ian G]

I moved it yesterday its in the lowest flow I can find.

Maybe feeding it the prawn has damaged him killed by kindness as it did grab two small bits.

It's flesh is still torn and loose and mouth still gaping, time will tell I guess.

Ian the other Ric passed before I started dosing and the elegance I had been dosing but it came good again after two days and a water change with no change in the dosing.

Edit. It wasn't exy I brought it off a friend it's just awesome!

So what did change? There's nearly always something.

I can't preach though, I keep saying I'll keep accurate records but forget to make entries. Yet I know if I did it, I would be be reminded of something I did or something that changed. Or maybe something I observed.

 

[Sarg]

The position I moved it to. I unwittingly moved it probably from its ideal position to somewhere less than ideal I'd say that is the problem.

 

[MagicJ]

From what I have been reading they like a low flow area - I guess that getting buffeted by higher flow may damage the delicate skin.

I also don't think fleshy foods are ideal for these corals, after all, they wouldn't score this type of food in the wild. I keep plenty of LPS, some I've had for over six years, yes, they grow slowly, however I never feed any of them fleshy foods.

Chris, I am interested in this comment as I also feed mine pieces of shrimp, maybe a 5mm cube size. I always worked on the premise that the size of the feeding tentacles was proportional to the size of the food they could take. Scoly's have relatively large feeding tentacles - if they weren't able to capture larger forms of life then why do they have these tentacles.

 

[Sarg]

The only thing that really changed was the location. So I'd say two days of high flow is what has done the damage. It's still clinging on but badly torn :(

They have a fairly large mouth to.

 

[chrispc66]

IMO these corals don't have the strength to capture live prey of the size of prawns. It's a fair assumption the do catch mysis shrimp and other micro fauna in the wild, however most of their dietary needs are based on phyto and other micro organisms in the water body itself.

I do believe some people may over feed corals in this category. A few mysis and some form of liquid food is all they need. Open brains and fungias are also in this category. I have acans with individual polyps larger than 20c piece, their feeding tentacles are very large and I have observed them many times trap amphipods and digest these.

Hammers on the other hand won't even feed on lumpy flesh based foods, I only find they take small pellets. In fact all corals with feeder polyps and mouth take small pellets like spectrum readily.

I'm no expert in the field of coral feeding, my comments are based on long term LPS keeping. I have a large red / white acan, elegance, open brain, fungia and several nice hammers for very long term. Never found they accepted flesh based foods well, however micro fauna / pellets are readily accepted. Their reaction to liquid food after lights out is pretty amazing. All these LPS are in lower flow regions of my DT.

 

[chrispc66]

The coral looks pretty good. I would leave it be a few weeks. As long as it is receiving low flow and a little light it looks like it will recover well....maybe a few mysis from the turkey baster once it looks to have recovered.

Good luck, is worrying to have a nice coral like this in a bit of trouble.