Can A Duncan Come Back to Life?

[MuggyReef]

Haven’t seen anything on this before and only found one picture of it.
I recently added 3 peppermint shrimp to my 125 gallon, I was told by the lfs that they’re reef friendly and they were in their coral tanks for a while before moving to the front of the store for sale. Apparently they were 2/3 right. 2 of them are completely harmless, one of them is a complete ****** and tried stealing mysis from my Duncan. I just started feeding more and it seemed to leave it alone but out of nowhere it declined at a rapid rate, stopped opening, then there was a hole in the middle, then it disappeared. I’m guessing because the shrimp was going back to it during lights out. I’ve since purchased another Duncan and made a protective shell from a water bottle after noticing the shrimp hovering over it, it’s doing fine now. I decided to just leave the original Duncan skeleton in for now. It’s been about two or three weeks and it just looked like the skeleton, then the other day I noticed it still had a couple tentacles but they were completely deflated and I thought nothing of it. However today I noticed those tentacles are actually inflated and moving around.. is it possible for a Duncan to actually come back from what looks like death or is it just remnants of the Duncan that remained?

 

[T-J]

Your tank looks brand new. I think that's your problem, not your shrimp.
The only way a coral "comes back" is if there was living tissue still there.

 

[LeftyReefer]

Its not dead yet. Looks to still have healthy tissue covering the skeleton.
hold out hope until the skeleton is completely bare and no tissue on it.

 

[MuggyReef]

Your tank looks brand new. I think that's your problem, not your shrimp.
The only way a coral "comes back" is if there was living tissue still there.

The tank is approaching 5 months now, parameters are good during weekly testing. Also have 2 Zoas and an Anthelia constantly producing new heads as well as a birdsnest that’s growing. Until I added the shrimp everything was doing great, everything still is besides the Duncan. Similiar thing happened to the new Duncan when the shrimp was on it, it retracted for a few days but is recovering just fine with the shield on it.

 

[MuggyReef]

Its not dead yet. Looks to still have healthy tissue covering the skeleton.
hold out hope until the skeleton is completely bare and no tissue on it.

That’s insane, I did notice the skeleton looked different from the dead Duncan pictures. If it makes a comeback I’m naming it Rob Zombie.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Your tank looks brand new. I think that's your problem, not your shrimp.
The only way a coral "comes back" is if there was living tissue still there.

Duncan's are super tolerant of most tank conditions, including new.

@MuggyReef it is absolutely possible for a Duncan (as well as many other corals) to regenerate if there is healthy living tissue. The issue is usually finding and correcting the original problem in time.

If it's the shrimp, can you get it out with a bottle tap?

 

[MuggyReef]

Duncan's are super tolerant of most tank conditions, including new.

@MuggyReef it is absolutely possible for a Duncan (as well as many other corals) to regenerate if there is healthy living tissue. The issue is usually finding and correcting the original problem in time.

If it's the shrimp, can you get it out with a bottle tap?

It’s definitely the shrimp but unfortunately the only thing I could do with it is place it in my HOB refugium. Don’t have time to take it back to my lfs and running canister filters for now, but will have a sump/refugium within a few months. I wonder if I placed it in a frag rack away from the shrimp it would survive.

 

[LeftyReefer]

btw, I've also come to the same conclusion about peppermint shrimp. evil.
I will now only have them when I need them to do a job, after the job is done, they get evicted.

 

[exnisstech]

btw, I've also come to the same conclusion about peppermint shrimp. evil.
I will now only have them when I need them to do a job, after the job is done, they get evicted.

And many times the little SOBs don't even do the job they were hired for.

 

[MuggyReef]

So a little update on the Duncan. I got a frag rack and placed it in there with my new favites. It is growing back! I moved the one aggressive shrimp into my HOB refugium with some live rock, previously it was just running empty. I thought it might be okay if I left him in the tank and just put the frag in the rack but within 24 hours the shrimp was back on it. All is running smooth now and the Duncan has visible tentacles above the skeleton, the other 2 shrimp still don’t even go near them.

 

[MuggyReef]

Another update on it, it’s is coming back!

 

[bnord]

well done, here's to it holding!

 

[moskalenko2017]

I am so so glad I found this post! I just had this happen! I WATCHED the dang peppermint shrimp reaching in and grabbing bits of my Duncan!! I’m so upset. I took both my shrimp out and put them in a separate small tank until I can hopefully take them back to the shop tomorrow. I’m hoping my Duncan grows back like yours does!!! It happened LITERALLY 3 hours after I put the new frag into my tank!!!!!