Hey all, I’ve had this brain for about 6 months and it’s never really been too happy in my no nutrient, high light tank. Once i found the right spot for it it stabilized but never really thrived. It has been in a constant state of recession for a good month now. The healthy portion seems happy and opens up at night or when i feed. Initially I thought the tissue was receding because my hermits started bothering it when the tank ran out of algae. I could never tell if they were eating the coral, the slime it produced or algae on the dead skeleton. They started bothering my montiporas as well so I removed them. I never saw them pinch at living flesh but they certainly irritated corals. Then some other lps started looking like they were getting chewed on and I narrowed it down to my long spine urchin. I caught him on the brain once but again, not certain if he was eating algae, slime or coral. I had a urchin a while back that would eat on my orange plate.
It has been about ten days since I removed the urchin and the coral continues to receed with a line of either bacterial funk or coral guts. I can see a good amount of copepods meandering around the dead skeleton and on the line of death. Could the copepods be eating the coral or are they just “cleaning up” the dead flesh? In 6 months I have only added the urchin(not qt’d) and a monti frag(qt’d two months).
I do have a number of unidentified hitchhikers here https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/worms-hydroids-snails.487608/ however I’ve never spotted them near the coral. The only fish in my 90 are a couple clowns, 4 bar gobies, and a yt damsel. I have a big coral banded shrimp but i’ve never seen him on the coral. All parameters are near ideal aside from zero nitrate(and presumably phos) despite heavy feeding.
It has been about ten days since I removed the urchin and the coral continues to receed with a line of either bacterial funk or coral guts. I can see a good amount of copepods meandering around the dead skeleton and on the line of death. Could the copepods be eating the coral or are they just “cleaning up” the dead flesh? In 6 months I have only added the urchin(not qt’d) and a monti frag(qt’d two months).
I do have a number of unidentified hitchhikers here https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/worms-hydroids-snails.487608/ however I’ve never spotted them near the coral. The only fish in my 90 are a couple clowns, 4 bar gobies, and a yt damsel. I have a big coral banded shrimp but i’ve never seen him on the coral. All parameters are near ideal aside from zero nitrate(and presumably phos) despite heavy feeding.
I did too have a long spine urchin that constantly got on top of my corals and did damage them. As for your coral something may have bothered it or there was a parameter swing the tissue started to die and then it got infected. You also mentioned you have a low nutrient tank. What are you Nitrates and Phosphates at? It may be starving if you aren't feeding it enough.
