Can I save this kingspawn?

[GothFishKeeper]

9 days ago I brought home what the shop called a kingspawn, a super fancy frogspawn with massive polyp size. It’s just a single head but this is what it looked like the day after I brought it home:

The day after that I decided to feed it a small chunk of prawn just like I give to my nems, and it seemed to take the whole thing. I don’t know if that has anything to do with this, but the next day it looked like this:

Then after a few more days it looked like this:

Now it looks like this:

I have no idea what could be going wrong. It’s as if something is tearing it up while I’m at work each day. All my fish are reef safe, and even my angel is a watanabe so there’s not supposed to even be any caution with that. The only thing I can think of is that my tang and my angel like to steal food from the tentacles of my LPS, but I haven’t even given it any more food since the time of the second photo. After it got worse I completely stopped spot feeding it. All my other corals are plump, opening, and feeding aside from my plate coral that got ticked off by an emerald crab last week. It’s in a fairly low flow high light spot, and I even turned down my mp10 schedule and got rid of the nutrient export mode on there. Can anyone tell me what could be happening and if it’s possible for me to save this guy? This is by far my favorite coral I’ve ever picked up and I’m really upset that this is happening.

Water parameters:
Ca: 482ppm
Alk: 8.9 dkh
No3: 3ppm
Po4: 0.05ppm
Salinity: 1.026 SG
pH: 8.05 - 8.12

 

[BristleWormHater]

Such a rare coral, I hope you can save it!
@VintageReefer

 

[GothFishKeeper]

Such a rare coral, I hope you can save it!
@VintageReefer

Exactly :( if it doesn’t make it the shop i got it from probably couldn’t just order another one all of a sudden

 

[VintageReefer]

Seems like an injury to me, it could be a fish nipping. I don’t think it has a good chance but who knows. Keep it safe and in low flow

 

[BristleWormHater]

I would do an iodine dip and get a picture of the flesh band (if it still has one). Move to low flow like @VintageReefer said.

 

[GothFishKeeper]

Seems like an injury to me, it could be a fish nipping. I don’t think it has a good chance but who knows. Keep it safe and in low flow

That’s what I thought as well but I have no clue who in the tank could be doing it. I’ll try to find a lower flow spot but i don’t know if I have one that is in strong enough lighting. Do you think I should prioritize the flow even if it means not a lot of light?

 

[BristleWormHater]

That’s what I thought as well but I have no clue who in the tank could be doing it. I’ll try to find a lower flow spot but i don’t know if I have one that is in strong enough lighting. Do you think I should prioritize the flow even if it means not a lot of light?

Prioritize both low flow and light, reduced light will also help reduce stress.

 

[GothFishKeeper]

Prioritize both low flow and light, reduced light will also help reduce stress.

Ah okay that makes sense, thanks! I’ll set up an iodine dip now and I’ll update you guys on how it goes

 

[BristleWormHater]

Also, if it still has a flesh band I would say its definitely been getting eaten by something. Tissue recession usaully starts at the flesh band and goes up to the head, if the flesh band is still present but the head is damaged then its probably being eaten.
Isolate it from your livestock if you can, qt box with holes for flow, or put it into a different tank if you have one.

 

[GothFishKeeper]

Also, if it still has a flesh band I would say its definitely been getting eaten by something. Tissue recession usaully starts at the flesh band and goes up to the head, if the flesh band is still present but the head is damaged then its probably being eaten.
Isolate it from your livestock if you can, qt box with holes for flow, or put it into a different tank if you have one.

It has… half a flesh band??

As in it’s split right down the middle.

Also the frag plug was so stuck on the rock when pulling it off that the plug stayed put and the coral came flying off in a cloud of dead flesh when it came free. At least it didn’t come out of my hand though.

 

[GothFishKeeper]

Also, if it still has a flesh band I would say its definitely been getting eaten by something. Tissue recession usaully starts at the flesh band and goes up to the head, if the flesh band is still present but the head is damaged then its probably being eaten.
Isolate it from your livestock if you can, qt box with holes for flow, or put it into a different tank if you have one.

Seems like an injury to me, it could be a fish nipping. I don’t think it has a good chance but who knows. Keep it safe and in low flow

also this may be a stupid question as I’ve never actually seen it in my own tanks, but that’s not BJD is it?

 

[GothFishKeeper]

Dip is complete and it’s on the opposite side of the tank in the lowest flow possible. Now the long uphill recovery begins.

It does look like something just ripped off exactly half of the head. Is it possible for a 4.5” fish to rip a piece of shrimp out of its tentacles so hard that so much gets damaged?

 

[ricketyroll]

Any update on its recovery ?

 

[GothFishKeeper]

Any update on its recovery ?

Hey! Sorry I’m just seeing this… unfortunately it was completely gone the next day :(

I got another one because the reef shop I bought it from (which is actually where I work as of last week) somehow was able to get a couple others in. I still feel sad and guilty about not being able to save it, but this one is doing incredibly well and has been for weeks. I’ll get pictures when the lights are on tomorrow.

 

[MR81]

Prioritize both low flow and light, reduced light will also help reduce stress.

Correct. I've kept a few of these with also your same luck. But I did get one to survive for months now with low flow and low light. it also prefers cooler temperatures in the 70's. Above 79 degrees these will not do well. I've learned that once it starts to recede like yours, they die in a day or so.

 

[BryanM]

9 days ago I brought home what the shop called a kingspawn, a super fancy frogspawn with massive polyp size. It’s just a single head but this is what it looked like the day after I brought it home:

The day after that I decided to feed it a small chunk of prawn just like I give to my nems, and it seemed to take the whole thing. I don’t know if that has anything to do with this, but the next day it looked like this:

Then after a few more days it looked like this:

Now it looks like this:

I have no idea what could be going wrong. It’s as if something is tearing it up while I’m at work each day. All my fish are reef safe, and even my angel is a watanabe so there’s not supposed to even be any caution with that. The only thing I can think of is that my tang and my angel like to steal food from the tentacles of my LPS, but I haven’t even given it any more food since the time of the second photo. After it got worse I completely stopped spot feeding it. All my other corals are plump, opening, and feeding aside from my plate coral that got ticked off by an emerald crab last week. It’s in a fairly low flow high light spot, and I even turned down my mp10 schedule and got rid of the nutrient export mode on there. Can anyone tell me what could be happening and if it’s possible for me to save this guy? This is by far my favorite coral I’ve ever picked up and I’m really upset that this is happening.

Water parameters:
Ca: 482ppm
Alk: 8.9 dkh
No3: 3ppm
Po4: 0.05ppm
Salinity: 1.026 SG
pH: 8.05 - 8.12

I would argue that Nitrates that low could be starving it.

I would also argue that angels are never truly reef safe. Nor are any reef fish if one were underfeeding, as a hungry fish turns into an opportunistic fish.

If you're only feeding once a day that's not enough for the fish. I have an auto feeder and feed 3x a day, many others on this site feed more than that. But when I went from my 1x feeding a day to 3x, aggression in my tank went way down.

Nitrates min IMO 5, and I'd prefer 10-20. Phos freaks me out that low, but certainly thats a perfectly fine number.