Torch Coral not looking Good

[Letterkenny]

Hey all - looking for some advice here. I bought a torch coral from a forum member and it was shipped in 11/6 whereby I acclimated it and then dipped it in Coral RX. It definitely didn’t look good since all I could see was the skeleton body. However, by end of day, it opened up and looked good (see first and second photos).

I had to go out on the night of 11/6 - 11/8. Apparently my AI Hydra 26’s decided to go rouge and stay on at my normal setting all night until 11/7 or 11/8 (my wife who was at home couldn’t recall). When I came home, I see that the torch closed up. Thinking it is just ticked from the lights, I turned the lights off for a day.

Fast forward to today and it is still not opening up and now I see a clear tentacle hanging out? If I didn’t see it open up after I received it, I would have said it is DOA. Any advice? Should I dip again? See the current photos of my tank where you can see my torch corals being fully open, along with the frogspawn and the new zoas I also received. Will test the water now as I know the parameters will be requested.



PH - 7.8
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10-15 (seems high)
Alkalinity - 7.9
Calcium - 410
Temp - 78
Salinity - 1.025

 

[The Aquatic Arsenal]

I wouldn't say it was DOA since it has opened up in your tank. Sounds like it is upset with the shipping and the light mishap.

 

[00sevenless]

Bummer. That's a lot of skeleton showing. With luck, it may recover, but they don't always make it. . .I had one like this that fell and I didn't notice it under a rock for a while. I tried to get it to come back, but after a few days it died off. My advice is keep it where it seemed happy and cross you fingers. If your parameters are good it might make it.

 

[Letterkenny]

I wouldn't say it was DOA since it has opened up in your tank. Sounds like it is upset with the shipping and the light mishap.

Yes I agree. If it didn’t open I would have been concerned. I just have the lights on the normal schedule now. Should I do a blackout period or keep as is?

 

[dhof]

Yes I agree. If it didn’t open I would have been concerned. I just have the lights on the normal schedule now. Should I do a blackout period or keep as is?

Hard to tell from the pics but sure looks like a lot of skeleton showing. It’s very likely a goner no matter what you do (sorry). I’d think that keeping the normal schedule and parameters is the best course of action, not throwing more variables (like blackout) to it.

 

[Letterkenny]

Seems quite odd that it originally was like that when it shipped in and then it opened up. How long should I give it to open?

 

[dhof]

Seems quite odd that it originally was like that when it shipped in and then it opened up. How long should I give it to open?

Again, it's hard to tell from the pictures, but there is a difference between "Retracted" and "Exposed Skeleton". Typically when you receive a coral, the polyps might be "Retracted" into the skeleton, but there is still a thin layer of tissue covering the skeleton.

There is an entirely different situation when a coral is in serious trouble where the polyps are not only retracted into the skeleton, but there is no thin layer of tissue at all covering the skeleton. In the "Exposed Skeleton" scenario, the actual bone is in contact with the water, and eventually you would see algae growing on the exposed bone.

It's really hard to tell from the pictures if you have exposed skeleton or not, but you should be able to tell in-person. You would expect that a shipped coral would be "Retracted", but you would not expect the entire coral skeleton to be "Exposed Skeleton" from shipping.

In my experience if it is at the "Exposed Skeleton" stage, it would be a miracle if it makes it. Really I'm just trying to help set expectations, its worth trying for the life of the coral animal, but realistically you should be prepared for it not to survive if the skeleton is exposed....

 

[Magellan]

Seems quite odd that it originally was like that when it shipped in and then it opened up. How long should I give it to open?

I had a hammer that almost died (first coral I got, and had a faulty thermometer...). Because the only parameter that was off was my temp, endlessly testing my water was a fools errand. I took water into my LFS over and over, they couldn’t tell me anything either. Basically I was slowly cooking it. I kept moving it around the tank, looking for the right combination of light and flow, but I’m sure that just annoyed it even more. I finally figured it out on a whim (stuck the thermometer from my other tank in there) but it was almost too late. For weeks it looked dead, fully receded into its skeleton. I was patient, and left it on the bottom in low flow. Gradually, over a LONG period of time, it started to rejuvenate itself, and now looks better than ever and is currently splitting into 4 heads!

Long story short: be very patient, perhaps move it lower in the tank for now, and get a bottle of Fuel by Aquavitro. There’s an (amino acid? Trace element?) called Manganese in there that euphyllia absolutely LOVE, i couldn’t recommend it more.

 

[Letterkenny]

Again, it's hard to tell from the pictures, but there is a difference between "Retracted" and "Exposed Skeleton". Typically when you receive a coral, the polyps might be "Retracted" into the skeleton, but there is still a thin layer of tissue covering the skeleton.

There is an entirely different situation when a coral is in serious trouble where the polyps are not only retracted into the skeleton, but there is no thin layer of tissue at all covering the skeleton. In the "Exposed Skeleton" scenario, the actual bone is in contact with the water, and eventually you would see algae growing on the exposed bone.

It's really hard to tell from the pictures if you have exposed skeleton or not, but you should be able to tell in-person. You would expect that a shipped coral would be "Retracted", but you would not expect the entire coral skeleton to be "Exposed Skeleton" from shipping.

In my experience if it is at the "Exposed Skeleton" stage, it would be a miracle if it makes it. Really I'm just trying to help set expectations, its worth trying for the life of the coral animal, but realistically you should be prepared for it not to survive if the skeleton is exposed....

I am trying to find a photo from when I received it but I would say that it was retracted into the skeleton when I received it and it still is. Looks like I’ll just keep monitoring it to see what happens.

 

[Letterkenny]

Found it - here is when I first got it and opened the container.

 

[Saltyreef]

Found it - here is when I first got it and opened the container.

Did you contact the seller to
Let him know the state of the coral?

 

[Mical]

If you saw it open, then it was not DOA. I'ld place it in low light and medium to low flow & let it recover.

 

[Letterkenny]

Did you contact the seller to
Let him know the state of the coral?

I did not as I saw the heads within and then it ended up opening a couple hours later in my tank. This was my first online order so wasn’t completely sure what to expect.