Torch Coral

[kpris]

It doesn't look good =/
Its pulled its polyps in and secreting a thin dark brown string that seems to just dissolve into the water. I haven't changed anything at all in the tank and it was perfectly fine this morning.
Any idea what's happening?

p.s. if it matters at all, i did a water change around 2 days ago? and the light timers broke also around then so the lighting has been a little bit irregular.

 

[ben1987]

My hammer does this occasionally and goes back to being normal. Well i think its that your describing.

Google brown jelly on torch coral though and make sure it isnt that.

 

[kpris]

Yea i did look up brown jelly and I'm fairly certain it's not that.
I moved him into an area with less flow and more light and he seemed to react well to that. Almost completely back to normal now.

 

[ben1987]

as i said, mine releases a stringy thing every now and again. It always goes back to normal so i dont think its anything to worry about tbh.

 

[Crazy fishes]

It sounds more like it is bleaching; my hammer did the same thing and every time I clean the tank now the frogspawn does the same. The brown stringy stuff is zooxanthellae the little algaes that powers the coral reefs.. It normally means the coral is upset so start looking at water quality, flow and lighting.

Hope this helps

Regards

 

[kpris]

Actually it's perfectly fine now, in fact more than perfectly fine. There's been an absolute explosion in growth rate overnight! It honestly looks a good 20% bigger than it ever has.
And all i did was move it, then move it back. Either that or it just never completely opened up until now.
Seems like the little hiccup did it a lot of good... o_o?

[edit] I just googled zooxanthellae and it does sound about right. Apparently the corals do expel them when bleaching but also when the population of zooxanthellae get too large. So periodically expelling excess amount of it keeps the symbiotic balance in check because although the corals need them, too much of it restricts their growth and overall health.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Yeah they can do this occasionally and isn't always a bad thing, as you have already found out its a method they use to keep in balance. Normally you see it more if you change your lights or move them around in the tank. In this case it could be because of the problem with your light timers it was just adjusting to the availble light.

 

[SkiFletch]

Common with Euphyllia genus corals. When changes in lighting or flow are made the coral may have an excess of symbiotic algae in its flesh. So to respond, the coral expels this algae which makes it look horrible. It often recovers quickly and is nothing to worry about