Why I hate euphyllia

[Velodog2]

I succumbed to temptation again a couple weeks ago and bought a two head colony of frogspawn for my generally thriving nano. Three days later I find the coral with one head completely detached.

You can see the detached head lying on the rocks below the coral skeleton. You can also see the remaining head continuing to look reasonably happy, as the other had looked before bailing out.

Two days after that I have this.

Of course that head quickly fell off as well but somehow managed to disappear in an 8 gallon tank.

Perhaps there was something wrong with the coral when I purchased it. I do a 50% water change weekly on this tank and all else is doing well including the trumpets you see in the background. The frogspawn was getting moderate light and flow, etc. I'm also angry with myself because I'm guessing these were wild-caught colonies and I violated my personal rule of only tank-raised animals.

The bizarre thing is that the polyp that fell off is still live and moderately inflated down in the rocks. It doesn't get much light or flow there but I'm tempted to pull it out and try to glue it to a rock like a mushroom.

Any idea what would cause this?

 

[Tab28]

Polyp bail is generally a sign of stress. Mostly from water. You said you do a 50% change weekly, that is a lot. Changes that large are generally reserved for drastic needs. Not to say that is what is causing it but without knowing your water perimeters it is hard to say.

When you do a water change that vast have you checked the perimeters before change and after change to see if there are huge swings?

Your rocks are full of coraline which is a good sign but it also shows good lighting. Have you acclimated the euphyllia to your water and lighting? Eyphyllia are hardy corals but iff not acclaimed to your water and lighting. They generally perish within a week or two.

 

[Velodog2]

Thank you Tab that was a very helpful reply to what was really more of a general rant!

I do the large water changes because I can since the tank is so tiny, and there is no filtration other than the rock, and no supplementation, and the changes seemed to be working. I don't do any testing on this tank. With low bio load and large water changes my logic says that things cannot get very far out of whack. Logic sometimes fails. It is supposed to be my "easy" tank (my other is full SPS with all the bells and whistles. My "hard" tank). The lighting is about 12 watts of LED that is working for the zoas, palys, and caulastrea, but perhaps was a change from whatever the frogspawn was used to.

Anyway, I will watch the detached polyp to see if it survives and leave it for now down in the dim region. Might it start to grow a new skeleton on its own?

 

[LPS]

50% change seems like way to much on such a small tank. Why not do 3 gallons instead? That's a lot of stress on the tank every water change.
Also once the frogspawn falls out its gonna die.

 

[Browner20]

Just venturing a guess as well, but stress of the new move to your tank combined with the attempt at a horizontal orientation out of the gate may have it predisposed. If you attempt again, maybe place the frag in a vertical orientation in the substrate and give it several weeks to adjust. Once you can tell it crowns back over the sides of the branch you can the try to glue it where you see fit.

 

[fungia_fiend]

50% weekly water changes are not that unusual for a skimmerless nano or pico reef, especially ones that don't dose. They aren't the "usual" procedure, and I prefer small continous changes, but that's nothing that hasn't been tried and true for a decade now. If everything else is doing well, I think the coral was just already stressed when you got it, or was stressed from the lighting change.

If you try again, get a frag from a local reefer. Those should be pretty easy to get aquacultured.

 

[choff]

Imo small tanks are much harder for this vey reason. So much harder to keep params stable.

 

[Velodog2]

50% weekly water changes are not that unusual for a skimmerless nano or pico reef, especially ones that don't dose. They aren't the "usual" procedure, and I prefer small continous changes, but that's nothing that hasn't been tried and true for a decade now. If everything else is doing well, I think the coral was just already stressed when you got it, or was stressed from the lighting change.

If you try again, get a frag from a local reefer. Those should be pretty easy to get aquacultured.

Agree 100%. Got a small frag from a local reefer a week ago and put in exactly the same location. Is doing fine so far. So far.

I kick myself for getting a frag that was probably wild caught.

 

[ProfessorX]

Im going to say the same thing as above. Try 2-4 gallon water changes. I have a 7.5 and a 9g and I have found that if I do a full 5 gallon water change, LPS don't do as well. With 2-4 (not sure why 4 works and not 5, just in my experience) corals seem to handle the change a lot better and actually benefit from it.

 

[JMSKI333]

+1 on too large of water changes being the prime suspect. How did you acclimate the coral?

 

[TheNowMovement]

Even in the even of the fact that a tank has no filtration, you are taking out a lot of good bacteria from your water when you do such a huge change like that! I have a 10g quarantine tank, and instead of such a huge change once a week, i change a gallon every four or five days... it does have filtration, so I dont have the same problem precisely, but if i were missing the filtration, I wouldnt do more than 30% a week! I just feel that youre getting rid of a lot of good stuff along with a lot of the bad! Double Edged Sword of sorts.