Pink Octospawn Receding?

[FutterBingers]

Hello everyone
I recently picked up this beautiful pink Octospawn from a local fish store. It looks like a wall variety and not a branching, but I could be wrong.

Everything has been going fantastic with it. Every day I get great polyp extension, when the lights are on the coral couldn’t be happier. It gets HUGE.

However at night when the lights go off I start to get worried. When I look at the rim of the octo, where the flesh and bone meet there are parts of the coral that look as if they are receding and I don’t know why. I can look at the coral and see the ridges *picture attached*

no flatworms or pest of any kind to my knowledge. I’ve been watching this since Friday and it hasn’t gotten much better or worse. It’s just stayed the same.

Parameters-
Calcium- 454
Alk- 9.2


Those are really the only parameters I test. All my other corals are fine. I keep Montipora among other SPS as well. Basically everything except acros.
The only thing I could think of that it’s doing is that it’s potentially starting to pinch off one of the heads to branch out more. But since it looks like a wall coral shouldn’t it be growing out and

 

[vetteguy53081]

Assure calcium not below 380 and moderate water flow and medium light
Also assure phos- salinity-nitrate and slk not elevated

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Did the skeleton look like this when you bought it? It's hard to tell from that angle, but it might be receding. MANY times, the wall variety of euphyllia are wild caught/collected as opposed to fragged from an existing colony that's been growing in a tank for a while. This can lead to several issues... Some corals just don't do well in captivity regardless of what we do. Wild collected coral often have a longer trip to get to us, including changing hands several times along the way. This increases the chance that they will sustain damage or stress.

Check the placement and move it out of direct flow that might be causing the flesh to be injured by the sharp skeleton.
As for possible treatment, if you feel it's getting worse, you can do an iodine dip; but the less it's handled/moved, the better.


I found this on another forum and feel it's a good read for any of us who keep euphyllia...

https://www.ultimatereef.net/threads/euphyllia-especially-torch-coral-buying-help.885184/

An exerpt:
"A major issue here is, apart from signs of recession of flesh these corals will look amazing right upto the point of death. I have countless times seen torch corals with their heads hanging off, at the point of no return still looking amazing with long flowing polyps and then stone cold dead the next day.

"To even an experienced eye deterioration in these corals is rarely noticed until one day when half the coral rots away or polyps float off. The owner normally assumes it is something they did recently, in reality the cascade of events that caused the death most likely happened months down the line.

"A slight change in flow, causing a microscopic nick, a bit of algae or stuck food, where flesh meets the skeleton, a drop in nutrient or starvation which caused flesh to retract a bit and cut on its sharp septa etc etc.. followed by an unseen bacterial infection and the slow spread through the coral over months. All hidden from the proud owners eye."

 

[FutterBingers]

Did the skeleton look like this when you bought it? It's hard to tell from that angle, but it might be receding. MANY times, the wall variety of euphyllia are wild caught/collected as opposed to fragged from an existing colony that's been growing in a tank for a while. This can lead to several issues... Some corals just don't do well in captivity regardless of what we do. Wild collected coral often have a longer trip to get to us, including changing hands several times along the way. This increases the chance that they will sustain damage or stress.

Check the placement and move it out of direct flow that might be causing the flesh to be injured by the sharp skeleton.
As for possible treatment, if you feel it's getting worse, you can do an iodine dip; but the less it's handled/moved, the better.


I found this on another forum and feel it's a good read for any of us who keep euphyllia...

https://www.ultimatereef.net/threads/euphyllia-especially-torch-coral-buying-help.885184/

An exerpt:
"A major issue here is, apart from signs of recession of flesh these corals will look amazing right upto the point of death. I have countless times seen torch corals with their heads hanging off, at the point of no return still looking amazing with long flowing polyps and then stone cold dead the next day.

"To even an experienced eye deterioration in these corals is rarely noticed until one day when half the coral rots away or polyps float off. The owner normally assumes it is something they did recently, in reality the cascade of events that caused the death most likely happened months down the line.

"A slight change in flow, causing a microscopic nick, a bit of algae or stuck food, where flesh meets the skeleton, a drop in nutrient or starvation which caused flesh to retract a bit and cut on its sharp septa etc etc.. followed by an unseen bacterial infection and the slow spread through the coral over months. All hidden from the proud owners eye."

Wow that was a great read! Thank you for showing me that. That gives me a good idea what to look out for now too. Thank you!

Now that the lights are on and everything is awake I was going to attach a picture of how happy the Octospawn is. I was also going to say “You would never think this guy is having any trouble at all huh?”

But after reading that article I realize it’ll look “great” until the day it kicks the can. For now I’ll keep an eye on it and

 

[Charlie the Reefer]

Wow that was a great read! Thank you for showing me that. That gives me a good idea what to look out for now too. Thank you!

Now that the lights are on and everything is awake I was going to attach a picture of how happy the Octospawn is. I was also going to say “You would never think this guy is having any trouble at all huh?”

But after reading that article I realize it’ll look “great” until the day it kicks the can. For now I’ll keep an eye on it and

dang what a cliff hanger....

 

[FutterBingers]

dang what a cliff hanger....

Hahaha I meant to type, “for now I’ll keep an eye on it and hope for the best, but expect the worst”

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Wow that was a great read! Thank you for showing me that. That gives me a good idea what to look out for now too. Thank you!

Now that the lights are on and everything is awake I was going to attach a picture of how happy the Octospawn is. I was also going to say “You would never think this guy is having any trouble at all huh?”

But after reading that article I realize it’ll look “great” until the day it kicks the can. For now I’ll keep an eye on it and

It might be fine. I certainly didn't mean to imply that death is inevitable, just that if something does happen to it in the next few months and you can't identify a cause, it might very well not have been anything you did wrong.

Beautiful coral for sure!

 

[FutterBingers]

Update for all those involved;

the octospawn started receding little by little until one day it had enough and fully detached. GG thanks for your help everyone!