Aussie golden torch receding but still extended

Forty-Two · Dec 18, 2021

Hello - my golden torch looks to me like it’s really starting to decline. I’ve had it for about 3-4 months now. Until recently it was doing great.

Ive noticed that the skin around the polyps is receding upwards. It tends to extend its polyps down towards the injured area as if holding the injured spot - at least most of the day it does this.

I did find some sort of thin long worm coming out is the base. It looks like it burrowed its way inside. I’m not sure if this is the cause of the receding however. I believe I’ve killed it by dragging it out with tweezers (it took 6-8 tries as it retracted itself inside each time).

Anyways not sure what else I can do with it. It’s glued to the rock so I can’t extract it easily and I’m thinking that might just stress it further.

salinity: 1.026
Nitrates: 18
Phosphates: .08 although the were as high as .24 recently (hermit crab died)
Temp: 25.4

Evo R · Dec 18, 2021

What are your Mag, Cal and Alk levels?

Sounds like you have a Euphyllia pest problem. I personally would remove it and Dip it. Might cause some extra stress, but its better than leaving it to slowly perish.
And definitely look into getting something in the line of a Six line wrasse or some other pest eating fish that's compatible with your other live stock to also aid in saving this torch.

Forty-Two · Dec 24, 2021

Evo R said:
What are your Mag, Cal and Alk levels?

Sounds like you have a Euphyllia pest problem. I personally would remove it and Dip it. Might cause some extra stress, but its better than leaving it to slowly perish.
And definitely look into getting something in the line of a Six line wrasse or some other pest eating fish that's compatible with your other live stock to also aid in saving this torch.

I don’t have the numbers handy - I’ll be honest I don’t often test those three at the moment - primarily because the corals I have aren’t really sensitive to them as much. I’m still trying to get Phos and Nitrate stable - I won’t be dosing anything more complicated until I replace this tank. For now I address them with water changes.

I tried to stretch out the water changes to 2 weeks - but I’m seeing stress on the monti - so I’m moving it back to weekly.

I do have good news to report though - which is it seems to me the Torch is healing. I’ve been trying to yank out the worm at it’s base. I’ve pulled it out several times and it seems to regrow - but at the same time - the Torch is healing so it appears successful to me.

I’m considering glueing the hole shut if it keeps regrowing/coming back.