Favia Brain Coral Showing Its Skeleton?

[craigybaby37]

This favia brain coral was added to my tank this time last week and has been perfectly fine up unitl now. i knowtised today that there are lots of pink patches showing and under closer inspection its the skeleton of the coral. Its starting to do it all over and also its got lots of cobwebb looking stuff comming from it aswell which is catching bits of dust and debris.

Here is a picture of it for better analysis of whats up.

Not to sure what to do with it so if anyone got any advice it would be much appreciated.

 

[Crazy fishes]

I would personally wait and watch. My frogspawn was damaged and I have lost essentially two head (which in a way was one since the tissue was continuous). The other independent head is showing signs of dying; area of skeleton showing through and stringy 'cob web' like material that needs to be syphoned off. I have left it and the tentacles are extending a lot much now. I need momentarily yesterday pick it up to have a closer look and my god it stunk of rotting flesh! There is nothing you can really do; it is in the hands of the gods. I was tempted to debris the dying tissue and clean off the remaining tissue of the 'dead' sister head. Cleaned the sister head and seems a lot happier today. Let nature take it's course but I share your dispair in watching cherished expensive corals auto-digest.

Fingers crossed.....

Regards

 

[SkiFletch]

That's interesting, I've never seen a blotchy problem like that WITHOUT a full-blow inflamation immune response. Interesting

I'll list some probable causes for brain coral recession, see if any of these apply to you:
- It's getting stung by neighboring corals/anemones
- A fish or invert is picking at it (maybe even during lights-out)
- Low alkalinity
- Exceptionally high alk (>14 KH)
- High specific gravity (>1.027)
- High phosphate (>0.1ppm)
- High temp (>83)
- Fluctuating temp
- Low pH (<7.8)
- Alleopathic inhibition (any leathers in the tank?)

 

[craigybaby37]

The only thing i can link to with the possible causes is that i have leathers in the tank.

The brain coral was placed next to my leather coral but with a 4" gap between them.........what is it that leather corals can do then to possibly make the brain coral show its skeleton??

and just so you know i moved the brain coral over to a quieter area of the tank with not as much flow or lighting to try and help it to heal which i read somewhere on the internet.

 

[littleme1969]

I had a similar problem with my brain coral a while back, started to shrink back to he skeleton and generally looked unwell.
I eventually narrowed it down to high phosphates. The brains seem to be particular sensertive to the phosphate levels being the first to show signs of stress. While all the other soft corals where growing well. As mentined by Ski I would check all the above and see if you can pin point a water issue or maybe something bothering the coral. Mine made a full recovery with a few tweaks to the system, so there is still hope.

 

[SkiFletch]

Heh, well each coral has it's own defense against other corals and predators. The reef is a complicated environment, full of competition. Whereas LPS corals have sweeper tentacles that contain digestive stingers called nematocysts that literally digest the flesh of nearby corals, softies (especially leathers) engage more in subterfuge than direct hand-to-hand combat. They release what are known as alleopathic toxins into the water and store many in their flesh. Few of these toxins are well-known or identified, but what is clear is that they are organic molecules that inhibit calcification (the process by which a coral maintains and grows a healthy skeleton). If an LPS (like a brain) can't maintain it's skeleton, it receeds and dies.

Also, like littleme said, phosphates have the same effect. High phosphate in the water colume also inhibits calcification, stunts growth, and at high enough concentrations can cause dealth of the coral.

Do remember, receeding skeletons can also be caused by too high of a flow, and by predators, either during the day when looking, or during the night when you're not...

 

[craigybaby37]

thanks for the info ime gunna check the phosphate levels for sure, and buy some more phosphate remover as ive run out and the stuff ive had in my filter has been there for a while now so that can also be a problem.