Striped Duncan affected by F Duster

BCubeReef · Oct 31, 2017

Hi Reefers,

I bought a very beautiful frag of neon green striped duncan coral. Had 3 heads 2 months ago. I saw a feather duster on the skeleton. Being new to the hobby did not know much about it so left it there for a month also tried scraping off the tubes which did not work. Few weeks ago I saw bunch of new dusters and holes on skeleton plus the coral was shrinking polyps everyday (although grew 3 more heads.)
Asked advice from seller and used super glue to cover the area of skeleton. Now almost 3 weeks and no sign of dusters but the coral is still unhappy. It opens just a little close to grain of rice and shrinks completely inside when lights go off.
Any idea what could be the problem, is waiting the only choice?
Nothing changed in terms of lights/chemistry during all of this.
Thank you

This picture is almost a month old when polyps used to open to some extent.

EriksOasis · Oct 31, 2017

What’s the flow like in the tank? Mine like a good amount of flow so it’s waving. Also mine loves a lot of light.

BCubeReef · Oct 31, 2017

EriksOasis said:
What’s the flow like in the tank? Mine like a good amount of flow so it’s waving. Also mine loves a lot of light.

It gets moderate light and medium to high flow. Actually the same location where it was thriving for a month. I tried moving it close to light with less flow but nothing. I don't know if it is too much irritated by the dusters and need time or something else to heal.
I can try to move it again, its been 2 weeks at the same location.

nautical_nathaniel · Oct 31, 2017

Sometimes corals just get irritated from being messed with and take awhile to bounce back, it actually doesn't look too bad to me.

Michael Cronmiller · Nov 1, 2017

They get temperamental when you move them around, had em close up for weeks when I messed around with them too much..leave it be and it should open again.

aquatony · Nov 1, 2017

I’ve never had a problem dipping my corals when in doubt... I’ve dipped torch, mushrooms, zoas. Xenia. Frogspawn, hammers. 1-3 days after they are always fully extended again.