Duncan Help

[ashtoreth]

I recently received a duncan that was having some trouble acclimating -- never fully opened up (see picture below).

I assumed it was just shipping stress / my tank has a bit higher flow (but as far as I understand it's not super high flow). However, today in the morning I noticed part of the slime coat / ?flesh? was peeling off on the stalk of one of its heads and exposing the white skeleton (see circled red part below).

I pulled the coral out and bastered it and the stuff on that stalk was coming off a bit and it was pretty clear there was some polyp bailout happening since 2/3 of the troubled head's polyps came off with some bastering. I assumed that head was beyond saving so just took it off. However, nothing really came off the other stalk so I tried to put the remaining head back in my tank in a lower flow lower light area to see if it could recover. However, I'm now worried if this could be the beginning symptoms of BJD? The remaining head I put back in has a small string of ?slime? coming off of it and I don't know if this is just the normal stress reaction (I dipped it in lugol's and very watered down hydrogen peroxide and obviously moved its location) or if this worse and I should toss to make sure nothing else in the tank gets it?

 

[cdemoss01]

@vetteguy53081

 

[Shirak]

Pictures in white lights please!!!!!!!

Duncan are pretty hardy and can take quite a bit of flow and light. How long have you had it and what’s the par? List of water parameters might help too.

Looks more like a hammer too btw

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

The string looks like a vermatid web to me.

Duncan is fairly hardy coral and IME does well in medium light and medium flow.

I see the sand is very new, how old is the tank? Can you list your parameters please? Have the parameters been stable?

 

[Shirak]

The string looks like a vermatid web to me.

Duncan is fairly hardy coral and IME does well in medium light and medium flow.

I see the sand is very new, how old is the tank? Can you list your parameters please? Have the parameters been stable?

Do the later shots showing the polyp better look like a hammer to you? If so it’s going to be much more challenging than a Duncan.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Do the later shots showing the polyp better look like a hammer to you? If so it’s going to be much more challenging than a Duncan.

After looking closer, I say you're right, looks like hammer polyps! Cheers

 

[Jrhunter0000]

Any pics of it in white lights?

 

[ashtoreth]

Here are two pics in white light.

The polyps look different in person to me than the hammer I have (my pictures may just not be good) but isn't as long and tendrilly as the duncans I'm used to seeing. If it's a hammer then it's clearly incredibly not healthy since I can't even see the usual flesh band, but it feels more like a duncan that's got stubby extension due to flow than a hammer?

The tank is pretty new - 3 months - but parameters other than phosphate have been steady based on my tests. I know we are heavy feeders and are still balancing nutrients, especially as we experiment with different types of food, and have a GHA and (I believe) cyano problem (although our new snails are making quick work of the GHA). We are doing 10 gal water changes every week or 2x 5-7 gallon water changes twice a week (for a 40gal AIO, 30 gal display) and removing the filter floss every day now.

Salinity: 35ppt (was less than 1 ppt different than the water the coral was shipped in)
Temp: 77.5
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 5-10ppm (has been consistent)
Phosphate: .38 (this one has fluctuated a bit over time ranging from .24 to .38 -- I am working on getting it down but understand there is some amount of "I just have to weather it" since I started with dry rock)
Calcium: 395 (has been consistent)

I've been waiting for an alkalinity test to arrive since everywhere seemed sold out of the salifert one.

The other coral I have in the tank, albeit most of them were picked to be very hardy, all seem to be doing fine including a hammer, a hairy green mushroom (grown quite a bit over the last month that I've had it), xenia (growing), gsp (growing), zoa and a candy cane (was in tough shape when I got it but is puffing up more and more and regaining color). I'm not sure any corals are definitively flourishing other than the hairy green mushroom and xenia but I would've expected any broad-based water parameter issues to stress out some of those before causing a duncan to have a polyp bailout? (My prior experience with duncans was that they were very very hardy -- had one I added at roughly the 3 month mark in my old tank and it grew from 1 to 5 heads fairly quickly so thought it would be fine to try in this tank.)

In terms of light, haven't been able to get my hands on a par meter but using two AI Primes and placed roughly based on the BRS suggestion for a 40gal breeder (my tank-- IM 40L--dimensions are basically the same). The duncan is on the sand for acclimation purposes but I certainly have other spots I can move it to with a lot more light -- just thought it was best to let stressed corals settle in with lower light and flow?

 

[Shirak]

Well hard to say for sure. Not all duncan have long thin tentacles. Did it move again? The one you circled above was by the rock. Now it's back in the corner of the tank? Either way care would be similar. Nutrients are good. Alk could be a problem if you don't know what it is.

Possibly light.. AI Primes are not very powerful lights and they tend to have a narrow focus and light intensity drops off quickly as you move away from the center of the light. Trying to cover a 35 x 16" tank with two might be a bit of a stretch. What do you have the settings on for duration and intensity? I have one AI Prime over a 5g tank running around 80% and have zoas happy about 18" from the light (light 10" from the water and zoa about 8" below the surface)

 

[ashtoreth]

Well hard to say for sure. Not all duncan have long thin tentacles. Did it move again? The one you circled above was by the rock. Now it's back in the corner of the tank? Either way care would be similar. Nutrients are good. Alk could be a problem if you don't know what it is.

Possibly light.. AI Primes are not very powerful lights and they tend to have a narrow focus and light intensity drops off quickly as you move away from the center of the light. Trying to cover a 35 x 16" tank with two might be a bit of a stretch. What do you have the settings on for duration and intensity? I have one AI Prime over a 5g tank running around 80% and have zoas happy about 18" from the light (light 10" from the water and zoa about 8" below the surface)

Yes, I ended up moving him into a corner since I looked at the flow a bit and he was still being pushed around a lot. He’s much more extended in his new spot today so I figured I’ll let him get used to it a bit and see if he’s on the mend or goes downhill again. Yeah, I’m definitely going to track alk as soon as the tests arrive but currently hoping the other corals would tell me and my water changes would buffer any big swings.

My AI primes are spaced 10inches apart (and each roughly 10inches from the sides of the tank), and ~10-11inches off the water = 19inches off the sandbed, so roughly the same as yours? I’m only running them at 67% peak intensity though since i heard it’s easier to work up slowly vs harder to get back from over lighting them. The plan had been to up the intensity slowly after corals settle in to see where they flourish but haven’t started yet given my sand has decent algae growth and I’m seeing some spots of cyano. I run them around peak for 6hrs a day with a 3 hr ramp up and 2 hr ramp down. Do you think it’s better to try higher light levels now?

 

[Shirak]

The Candy Cane looks happy. I think I would leave the lights where they are and maybe extend the peak time out to 8 -9 hours by reducing the ramp up a couple hours. I think it might be worth moving the coral up onto the rock so it can get more light. My candy canes always did better with around 80-100par and the duncans 150ish or a little higher no problem.

Usually you can tell if it's too much as LPS will stay very retracted inside the skeleton when the lights are at peak power. I don't think you are at risk for that with the AI Prime unless you put it just under the water surface directly under the center of the light.