help.. wellsophyllia deteriorating

[david p.]

hi,

i got a wellsophyllia, up until last weekend, it seemed to do well. I feed him i think Saturday or Sunday with some pellets, as usual. yesterday i saw him poop a huge load.

I know that during night it was extending all polyps. But now that i see it today, i think that during the day period it tend to not open (inflate) fully since a couple of days. all skinny, i can even see the 'skeleton'.

i know that one of my flameback angel nipped that coral, but it never really cared. The angel is not always nipping on it, just a couple of time here and there, i have seen video where a fish would literaly 'eat' polyps or LPS, it is not my case. the wellso never showed any sign of stress.

my parameters are normal:
Temp: 78 F
pH: 8.3
Alk: 9.18
Cal: 400
Mg: 1300
Nitrates-Nitrites-amonia = 0
Phos:~0-0.1

i have seen post with treatment with Coral RX or coral revive... not sure about that, any thought that oculd help me ??

i try to keep low nutrient. could it be it ?
The coral is on my sand bed, bottom of the tank, low-med flow (more on the low end). could it be the lights ? got radion G3pro, but it's like 18'' underwater, 25 '' from LED.

 

[Purple Platapus]

Try putting it in a place with lower lighting, and feed it some more

 

[david p.]

i moved it in a low flow area, near a 'more dirty zone' in the tank. near rocks, so less direct light.
i went to watch this morning while lights were out. It was slitly open, not fully as in previous days...

 

[david p.]

still in bad shape... i have a scoly right next to it and it's in top shape. i assume if it was linked to water condition and parameter it would also be affected ?

 

[david p.]

update, i still see it open during the night. last night it seemed to have more polyps out, but not that much over all. I can't say it's stable or not, i think i can see a bit more of the skeleton specialy in the middle near the mouth. color are the same, it's just color rendition on picture

 

[david p.]

think i found something, these little holes under the wellso we definitively not there before !!! what could it be ?
there's the big one in the middle but a smaller one on the right...

 

[Tahoe61]

Gall Crabs are possibly responsible for the holes, it looks like a Gall Crab hole. I would guess the coral was over illuminated by the Radion. At this point moving it to an area of less light intensity, continue to feed routinely and avoid swings in ALk is really all you can do. Honestly I do not see a benefit to dipping the coral as I doubt this is bacterial or pest related.

 

[david p.]

ok, no dip then... i guess patience.
it could be the light, but my scoly is beside it and he's fat AF. i beleive they both require similar parameters. but who knows... i moved it anyway

 

[Tahoe61]

ok, no dip then... i guess patience.
it could be the light, but my scoly is beside it and he's fat AF. i beleive they both require similar parameters. but who knows... i moved it anyway

Parameters yes, but lighting can be tricky. Radion packs a huge punch and if the coral is not very slowly acclimated to intense LEDs you see that bleaching and tissue recession. These LPS require a lot less light then most people think, the coral can take a long time to turn around.

 

[david p.]

i purchased both at the same time in june, aclimatation for 2-3weeks then bottom of the tank near the center of the tank on the sand bed... anyway, time will tell. thanks for the help it's appreciated.. when things seems to go south with 'no apparent' reason, it makes me flip

 

[Tahoe61]

I look at it this way, corals are collected from different geographically areas, different depths and so on. It no longer surprises me when one coral is not responding like the coral right next to it.
A popular vendor did a write up on these large polyp type corals commenting that many times these corals really need a lower lighting environment. The images he provided of tacky's/wellso and other large polyp brains types showed colorful healthy corals under a lot less lighting then we use on our typical modern reefs.
My personal experience is that I have melted enough corals under LEDs to reconsider their lighting requirements when using LEDs.

 

[DeniseAndy]

I do not use LEDs but still can need light adjustments. Although if the angel picked a little, it could be that at night when you are not there.

 

[david p.]

hi,
though i would give an update. Finally after 2.5wks, my wellso shows improvement. First time i see it inflate like this. i can still see some skeleton, but it is much better. i installed it in the back bottom corner, it barely receive direct ligh and low-low flow. The angel dont really go there.
thanks for your advices.

 

[Bruno Pereira]

david p. some part of the problem is your paramethers: Ca, nitrate ans phosphate. LPS are hard coral despite all and they need little nitrate and phosphate.
I recommend you to have Ca: 420, phosphate 0.03-0.05 and nitrates up to 10. They can manage 20 of nitrate but that is too risky, not advisable at all.
I had one wellso that i loved, my 1st one and died very sadly for me and one of the reasons and the main one was my dwarf angel, yellow flavissimus that was eating her one touche here another there...
This corals are very sensitive and need quite good care at a start of any small problems, if you see something might be wrong try to find out the problem and correct it after is too late.
I have 2 now and my paramethers are: KH 8.5, MG 1300, CA 420, Phosphate 0.05, nitrate 10 but usually is on 5.
I only have 3 or 4 hours of white light after i see one of them become stress changing the colour slightly to white.
Before i had 7 hours of white light together with purple plus and blue plus lights from ATI and i moved her to a place with less current. They do not like moderate current at all by my experience.
If you have any fish that bites her, does not matter, if is only a few times just remove it from the tank immediately. I did the same.
The yellow wellso died and i hated my dwarf angel forever...