New Coral Needs Help

[SeaHorseQueen]

Hey Everyone. I just got this coral tonight to try and help it. Where do I really start? I put the video of the bugs in hitchhiker area to figure out what they are because I’ve not seen them before. If this was your coral, where would you start in helping it? I feel like it needs a coral dip and lightly brushed to clear the algae off. I did find a sea star with it so idk yet if it’s going after the coral or the algae. Would love any advise to help it.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

What is it, I personally would not put that in any tank of mine. Imo you will be adding trouble even if you dipped it.

 

[SeaHorseQueen]

It has a super long name. Supposed to be a blue Goni. They said it wasn’t doing good in their tank for some reason at LFS (specialize in SW) so priced it super cheap. Supposed to be worth like $170? When it was open, it looks like snow flakes. I pulled off the sea star because it had white marks on the coral and researched it could have been eating the coral.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

It has a super long name. Supposed to be a blue Goni. They said it wasn’t doing good in their tank for some reason at LFS (specialize in SW) so priced it super cheap. Supposed to be worth like $170? When it was open, it looks like snow flakes. I pulled off the sea star because it had white marks on the coral and researched it could have been eating the coral.

Not a goni, that's a pipe organ

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

I don't know if it is revivable, but I'd first give it an iodine dip and gently rub the sponge off

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

The sea star is an asterina star, which are reef-safe 95% of the time but have been reported to supposedly eat some coral. Definitely dip it, pipe organ coral are prone to coral-eating nudibranch which is not something you want to add to your tank

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

it might have been a coral once before, but now its an aptaisia uber, and a few other pest passengers too. No way I would put that in my tank.

 

[SeaHorseQueen]

it might have been a coral once before, but now its an aptaisia uber, and a few other pest passengers too. No way I would put that in my tank.

It’s not dead. I checked on it when I got up. It has 5 open heads. I don’t know the parts of the coral but it’s opened up.

 

[Cell]

I see some aptasia looking tentacles sticking out. Not sure if this can be saved but I'd remove the hitchhikers and give it a Bayer or H2O2 dip for starters.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

It’s not dead. I checked on it when I got up. It has 5 open heads. I don’t know the parts of the coral but it’s opened up.

I'm not doubting you. But I would give up $$ to avoid adding the aptaisia to the tank. If at all possible, maybe you can frag the polyps off the plug and glue them somewhere else.

 

[SeaHorseQueen]

I see some aptasia looking tentacles sticking out. Not sure if this can be saved but I'd remove the hitchhikers and give it a Bayer or H2O2 dip for starters.

Yes, there’s one. H2O meaning freshwater dip?

 

[SeaHorseQueen]

I'm not doubting you. But I would give up $$ to avoid adding the aptaisia to the tank. If at all possible, maybe you can frag the polyps off the plug and glue them somewhere else.

I was watching a video last night about it but I would have to see if they could do it for me as I don’t have the equipment to cut it. I read you can add superglue over the aptaisia to kill it. Have you ever tried that?

 

[SeaHorseQueen]

Not a goni, that's a pipe organ

Thank you. I was told wrong then. It looks just like a pipe organ on google.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

Trust me on this you do not want to put this in your tank. Aptaisia is nothing to play with or risk getting into your tank. It has caused many a reefer to quit.

 

[Cell]

Yes, there’s one. H2O meaning freshwater dip?

H2O2 would be a diluted hydrogen peroxide dip for algae and some pests. Otherwise a true pest dip like Bayer would be recommended. But as others noted, deal with the aiptasia first.

 

[SeaHorseQueen]

Just wanted to share some updated pictures without all the algae on it. I used a soft toothbrush to get what I could off. Sadly, I needed up breaking the coral a little bit just brushing off the stuff off. The apaisia is in the middle of the coral pipes where you can’t reach it without waiting for the tenticles to come out. So, I have to catch it when it’s fully out. I’m trying to avoid it releasing any eggs in the QT tank. Any chance my peppermint shrimp will be ok in the QT? I have a single shrimp that I might be able to catch and put in there if he’ll eat the apitaisia.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Just wanted to share some updated pictures without all the algae on it. I used a soft toothbrush to get what I could off. Sadly, I needed up breaking the coral a little bit just brushing off the stuff off. The apaisia is in the middle of the coral pipes where you can’t reach it without waiting for the tenticles to come out. So, I have to catch it when it’s fully out. I’m trying to avoid it releasing any eggs in the QT tank. Any chance my peppermint shrimp will be ok in the QT? I have a single shrimp that I might be able to catch and put in there if he’ll eat the apitaisia.

Peppermint shrimp always have the added risk of eating the coral, remember aiptasia can regenerate from a single cell, a good way to get rid of them is getting a needle syringe and injecting the aiptasia with a little bit of lemon juice, that's the safest way to kill them in this scenario

 

[Kasrift]

It has a super long name. Supposed to be a blue Goni. They said it wasn’t doing good in their tank for some reason at LFS (specialize in SW) so priced it super cheap. Supposed to be worth like $170? When it was open, it looks like snow flakes. I pulled off the sea star because it had white marks on the coral and researched it could have been eating the coral.

It's a pipe organ coral and they were very off base. I'd dip it in Reef primer or something that is KCL based (potassium chloride). It will cause the aiptasia to fall off too.

 

[SeaHorseQueen]

Peppermint shrimp always have the added risk of eating the coral, remember aiptasia can regenerate from a single cell, a good way to get rid of them is getting a needle syringe and injecting the aiptasia with a little bit of lemon juice, that's the safest way to kill them in this scenario

I can definitely do that. Only issue is once it realizes I’m touching the coral it disappears into the bottom of the coral where the frag piece is and I can’t seem to find a way down there unless I break more pipes. How does the coral look to you in general after being cleaned up?

 

[Kasrift]

For your info, this is what it looks like.

Organ pipe coral - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

They aren't very expensive corals to be honest. They are cool and less common though.