Duncan closed up and releasing stringy slime?

ReefNo0ob · Feb 5, 2017

Hey guys i have a quick question regarding my duncan coral. Hes been doing great in my tank about a month now and actually started sprouting 4 new heads! Well today was my water change day and i wanted to do some rescaping to my live rocks. I rescaped everything while all my corals were in a corner on the sand bed. It was a little cloudy but not terrible. As i moved my duncan to its new spot, i noticed a stringy slime coming out of it while it was closing up. Its been maybe an hour and the water is almost back to full clarity and it's still closed up. Is the slime a defence mechanism for it and will it open up back to normal in a few hours?

Here it is yesterday. Super happy and open

And here it is now

Is it trying to expel tiny sand particles that might have gotten on it?

And help or input would be great because it is one of my favorite corals in my tank and has shown the most growth so far

ReefNo0ob · Feb 5, 2017

ReefNo0ob said:
Hey guys i have a quick question regarding my duncan coral. Hes been doing great in my tank about a month now and actually started sprouting 4 new heads! Well today was my water change day and i wanted to do some rescaping to my live rocks. I rescaped everything while all my corals were in a corner on the sand bed. It was a little cloudy but not terrible. As i moved my duncan to its new spot, i noticed a stringy slime coming out of it while it was closing up. Its been maybe an hour and the water is almost back to full clarity and it's still closed up. Is the slime a defence mechanism for it and will it open up back to normal in a few hours?

Here it is yesterday. Super happy and open

And here it is now

Is it trying to expel tiny sand particles that might have gotten on it?

And help or input would be great because it is one of my favorite corals in my tank and has shown the most growth so far

For some reason the second pic is turned sideways. It is sitting right side up in my tank

John S. · Feb 5, 2017

I got two Duncan frags about a 2 years now. They grow like a weed. Also one hardiest corals I have ever had. I never seen mine do that before. But with how hardy they are I personally wouldn't be overly worried about it. One thing I have noticed is they do better when fed. If I slack off on feeding them they will start to look sketchy.

ReefNo0ob · Feb 5, 2017

John S. said:
I got two Duncan frags about a 2 years now. They grow like a weed. Also one hardiest corals I have ever had. I never seen mine do that before. But with how hardy they are I personally wouldn't be overly worried about it. One thing I have noticed is they do better when fed. If I slack off on feeding them they will start to look sketchy.

I used a turkey baster to suck the slime up and a piece of turf algae was stuck at the end of the slime inside my duncan! Mustve gotten caught on the duncan during the rescape. Within an hour of doing that it was almost fully open! It must have been trying to push put that algae chunk out by excreting slime. Ill send a pic when i get home from the "big game" at my parents lol

ahiggins · Feb 5, 2017

Is it expelling waste?

elfda · Feb 5, 2017

A number of my frags, at work, will "slime up" for a varietu of reasons, but it's usually in response to my doing a WC or a vigorous algae scrub in their tank.

Such rage. Slimy, slimy rage.

ahiggins · Feb 6, 2017

elfda said:
A number of my frags, at work, will "slime up" for a varietu of reasons, but it's usually in response to my doing a WC or a vigorous algae scrub in their tank.

Such rage. Slimy, slimy rage.

#duncanrage