Trachyphyllia emergency!!

[jasonrusso]

While it is obviously unhappy, it can most certainly be saved. I've seen them come back from way worse.

What fish are in the tank? They are easily picked on by coral nippers.

Do you have a screen top? If you do, move it back to its original location and use a piece of paper on the screen top to shade it.

While I agree with others that getting your nitrates up to 5ish would be beneficial, i wouldn' go making drastic changes to your system if everything else seems happy. Maybe try feeding the whole tank more each day.

Only fish are 2 clowns, 2 firefish, watchman goby and a pistol shrimp. I haven't seen any bothering it. I've seen some crabs walk over it but they weren't picking at it.

For now, I lowered the skimmer gate, put the trachyphyllia under an overhang, and I'll feed a bit heavier.

We will see how it goes. Like I said, it clearly isn't dead, but it isn't doing well. Is a week usually enough time before I would start seeing issues from too much light?

 

[JCM]

Yes, a week is long enough. Too much light will keep it from inflating, too much flow will do the sane.

What lighting was it under previously when it was presumably happy? They can thrive under higher lighting but need a slow acclimation if it was under weaker lighting before.

 

[JCM]

Oh, also if the clowns tried to live in it, that could irritate it.

 

[jasonrusso]

Yes, a week is long enough. Too much light will keep it from inflating, too much flow will do the sane.

What lighting was it under previously when it was presumably happy? They can thrive under higher lighting but need a slow acclimation if it was under weaker lighting before.

You would have to ask divers den, lol. I would assume that they have some good lighting, but maybe specific for the tanks they are in.

My clowns don't host anything. I have a BTA, a big torch, frogspawn, and they hang out in the upper corner like jerks.

 

[JCM]

Well if it came from DD, you can most likely rule out pests. And if your euphyllia and anemones are happy, you can rule out water chemistry issues.

I'd assume it didn't like the lighting or flow it was getting.

 

[jasonrusso]

And if your euphyllia and anemones are happy, you can rule out water chemistry issues.

I'm still new at this, but is that true? Are the euphyllia the first to show signs of chemistry issues?

 

[JCM]

I did not mean to imply that the euphyllia would be the first to show signs of stress, out of what you've listed the anemone would most likely show it first.

I meant that if your other inhabitants are seemingly healthy, expanded and growing then your water is probably fine and wouldn't be the cause of your trachy issue.

 

[jasonrusso]

I did not mean to imply that the euphyllia would be the first to show signs of stress, out of what you've listed the anemone would most likely show it first.

I meant that if your other inhabitants are seemingly healthy, expanded and growing then your water is probably fine and wouldn't be the cause of your trachy issue.

Gotcha

 

[jasonrusso]

So this was my solution to my trachy getting too much light. I bought a good size piece of purple plate coral from my LCG (local coral guy) for $20. I mounted it to a couple rocks to make an overhang. The trachy is still getting some light because the colors still glow, but it is reflected light.

If you look at the overhead shot you can see that 97.2% is covered up from direct light. I think it looks pretty good and I can deal with it. Say a prayer for my trachy.

 

[jasonrusso]

I also picked up this guy while I was there. I need a centerpiece!

 

[dealseer]

You would have to ask divers den, lol. I would assume that they have some good lighting, but maybe specific for the tanks they are in.

My clowns don't host anything. I have a BTA, a big torch, frogspawn, and they hang out in the upper corner like jerks.

I’ve never heard of clowns hosting anything.

 

[MnFish1]

Ok, so it's not really an emergency but I need some help. I got my trachyphyllia about 1 1/2 weeks ago. When I first got it, it would inflate fully during the day and then retract at night. I noticed last week (after a week) that it wasn't inflating as much anymore. This weekend I noticed that it was starting to bleach. It is still alive because it still inflates a bit, just not as much.

I moved it into a shaded area because I think it was getting too much light. Everything else in the tank is fully open and growing.

The tank is a Red Sea Max C-130 with the Steve's LED upgrade. The blue lights were set to 2400 (60%) and white is set to 1600 (40%). I also turned the blue down to 50%. The trachy is on the bottom (about 20" down with the sand depth).

Water is good. I have been chasing ALK a bit, it got down to 7.5 but I brought it back up slowly over 2 days to 8.5. Like I said, everything else is good.

Calcium is 400-410
PH is 8.0

Here is the trachy the day after I bought it.

Here it is today before moving.


Is it going to be OK? Any advice is appreciated.

Could it be it doesn't like one of the coral around it? Fish can pick on those quite often - but the list of your fish seems ok?

 

[Temp]

My clown fish love to sleep in my brain, but that’s with lights out and my brain and fluffy and normal with lights on. I would try to find a lot lower flow and simmer area. It’s probably the lights and/or flow. My tank gets 51 par with just blue leds on in center of 40 breeder. And 4 hours of blue and white lights just on, on my Sb reeflights. Which I wanna say my par is roughly 75 max. But the brain sits in corner of tank under powerhead so it’s not getting much flow or light.

 

[jasonrusso]

Could it be it doesn't like one of the coral around it? Fish can pick on those quite often - but the list of your fish seems ok?

There wasn't really anything around it other than a xenia, but it was still 2-3 inches away.

Since I put it under the overhang it got worse the next day, I figured that that damage was already done, but it seems to have stabilized and may look a bit better today (possible wishful thinking), the outer rim looks brighter.

I've been feeding and I saw some poop come out today (gross, lol) but at least it is eating still.

 

[jasonrusso]

So I'm stumped with this thing. Since I put it under the plate coral, it has lost more color. It's almost completely white at this point, but the fluorescent colors are still there.

It's still alive because it give me a feeding response. I've been leaving meaty food (mysis, LRS, etc) on it and the next day I see black stuff coming out of the mouths. I figured it was trachyphyllia crap.

Some people said that it needs nitrates, so I have been dosing nitrates. I've been keeping them around 2ppm. All my other corals are doing fine. The LPS are bigger than ever and most of the SPS have white tips.

Could it have been that it wasn't getting enough light? That's why it is worse under the overhang? I've never heard of bleaching from not enough light.

 

[Humblefish]

I’ve never heard of clowns hosting anything.

They can host Brooklynella.

 

[jasonrusso]

If you can't see it, I circled it.

 

[MnFish1]

It does not look 'white'. Maybe move it a little further away from that spot - and check if fish are chewing on it....

 

[jasonrusso]

It does not look 'white'. Maybe move it a little further away from that spot - and check if fish are chewing on it....

My phone has a hard time with the blue light shift. It is pretty white, except for the rim that is still fluorescent. I was feeding all the other corals tonight, I put some on the trachy and about 10 minutes later, all the mouths were wide open. I put some mysis on top of it. I hope it ate some.

None of the fish bother with it. Sometimes my shrimp/goby put some sand on it, but this was an issue before that ever happened.

 

[jasonrusso]

Is it possible that this thing was so "angry" that it continued to bleach even after I moved it out of the light? Maybe all this was caused before I moved it, or should it have stopped as soon as I took it out of the light?