what is happening to my coral?

[Medym]

Hey folks,

I have noticed an alarming change in one of my corals over the past couple days.  It went from a vibrant, wide and open happy coral to this:



Any idea what is going on, it is just disappearing D:

[Darth]

I've had this happen to my frogspawn I had a huge colony about 20 heads, and it dissappeared over a weeks time, I think one of my fish was picking at it at night, not sure, but sorry to tell you from the looks of it, it doesnt seem like its gonna survive

[Greatwhite]

You probably have lots of little dead bits of that coral floating around your tank too...  Unfortunately, that guy is dying.  I've lost many torches in the same way.

Once it was caused by clownfish hosting it too hard, and the sharp edges destroyed the coral.  Once, I think I had a barnacle living in the middle of one of the torch heads, and it irritated the torch so much that it just retracted and died.  AND - I'm sure that my nitrate levels (or something) were off once which killed another.

I haven't had a lot of luck with those guys.........

How long have you had this one?  If it's a recent addition, was it properly acclimatized?  

[Medym]

You probably have lots of little dead bits of that coral floating around your tank too...  Unfortunately, that guy is dying.  I've lost many torches in the same way.

Once it was caused by clownfish hosting it too hard, and the sharp edges destroyed the coral.  Once, I think I had a barnacle living in the middle of one of the torch heads, and it irritated the torch so much that it just retracted and died.  AND - I'm sure that my nitrate levels (or something) were off once which killed another.

I haven't had a lot of luck with those guys.........

How long have you had this one?  If it's a recent addition, was it properly acclimatized?  

I had the coral for over a year, it has been in the tank for over a month and was doing fine.  Suddenly yesterday I noticed it was really sucked back and small, and today poof, where did it all go?!

[Greatwhite]

I had the coral for over a year, it has been in the tank for over a month and was doing fine.  Suddenly yesterday I noticed it was really sucked back and small, and today poof, where did it all go?!

There's really not a lot of "flesh"...  They fill up like balloons with water, and look amazing when inflated.  When they are deflated, there's really not much to them.  SO, when they die and let go of their rocky perch, there's not a whole lot to see.  The bits probably got blown around the tank until catching on a piece of rock to dissolve, or got sucked into your skimmer.

I've had torches & frogspawn that have been BEAUTIFUL and healthy looking for 6-8 months, and just mysteriously let go of the rock and die.

[Aquaticfinatic]

Have you added any new corals lately? You may have a flat worm issue or some other bug problem. I would check to see I you can see anything like that.

[Hookup]

If your params are stable and on-spec then you should be considering disease or predation, or both.

Params typically do not cause this type of damage, but param issues cause stress which can and do allow dormant diseases to get a hold and take over.   

Predation seems unlikely if this has been in your system for some time and no new inhabitants have been added.  Of course some one could have gotten hungry, but its lower down on the "what is likely happening" list IMO anyhow.

At this point, to increase the changes of saving this coral, I would isolate it in a quarantine tank.  Keep the parameters perfect and feed the coral some quality foods.  This will remove the stress and allow the coral to fight any disease it might have.

Personally, I'd let nature take its course.  I'd feed a quality LPS food, watch paramaters carefully, do a crap load of water-changes cause they are awesome and see how it goes...

[Cheebs]

If your params are stable and on-spec then you should be considering disease or predation, or both.

Params typically do not cause this type of damage, but param issues cause stress which can and do allow dormant diseases to get a hold and take over.   

Predation seems unlikely if this has been in your system for some time and no new inhabitants have been added.  Of course some one could have gotten hungry, but its lower down on the "what is likely happening" list IMO anyhow.

At this point, to increase the changes of saving this coral, I would isolate it in a quarantine tank.  Keep the parameters perfect and feed the coral some quality foods.  This will remove the stress and allow the coral to fight any disease it might have.

Personally, I'd let nature take its course.  I'd feed a quality LPS food, watch paramaters carefully, do a crap load of water-changes cause they are awesome and see how it goes...

I agree with all of this. I'd still give predation some serious consideration though. Over the years I've had some creatures "flip a switch" and just destroy a coral. My flame angel that I've had for a couple years never bothered any of my corals at all. Then, out of nowhere, it completely ate all the flesh off a decent sized favia colony over 2 days, there was no saving it. There could also be some sort of crustacean involved, and it hasn't discovered your tasty frogspawn until now, and is slowly muching away.

Food for thought, no pun intended!

[bandit]

just throwing this out there you didnt touch it correct. Just touching the flesh can cause it to retract and die.

[Hookup]

just throwing this out there you didnt touch it correct. Just touching the flesh can cause it to retract and die.

I've heard of this Bandit, but sharing my experiences only, it has not been my case.  I dropped it on the ground (insta-frag) and no issues... I've crushed heads when gluing it into new spots, always bounces back quickly..  I constantly mess with it (waving hand at it and in it) when my hands are in my tank..  never any issue...

Just pointing this out to illustrate that at the end of the day, its so hard to say what is happening with any of our corals... different systems, different collection methods, and i'm sure 1000 other factors all at play.  In the end what works for me might never work for anyone else.