Brain Damage (Pic)

[Fountainhead]

(Sorry about the bad picture. I had to shoot this at a serious angle through the glass.)

I bought this open brain on Sunday from my LFS, acclimated it, etc. Look good initially. Expanded nicely. On Monday I fed it a hunk of krill and it ate it.

Yesterday I noticed that it wasn't puffing up very much, and saw what looks like a split in the tissue (at the 11 o'clock position in the photo) and what looked like white tissue protruding. A couple of shrimp (cleaner and peppermint) were taking interest, as was an emerald crab.

I know it's hard to see, but is this indicative of disease, or stress, or could the emerald crab or the shrimp have inflicted the damage? All my fish are in quarantine right now, so we can't blame them. I tried to feed it a small hunk of food again today, but it just layed there on top until a shrimp came and stole it.

The only other coral in the area is a rock full of button polyps about 4 inches away at the 9 o'clock position.

Tank is 2.5 years old. 4x96 watt PC lighting. Parameters are decent, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, less than 10 nitrates, temp 80, PH 8.1, and I do drip kalk though not 24/7.

Whaddya think?

NOTE: If the pic doesn't show, try a refresh. My FTP site stinks.

 

[organism]

it could be possible that it's cutting its flesh on the rocky substrate when its opening, otherwise it could be water quality or lighting issues

 

[Fountainhead]

As far as lighting, would 4x96 watt PC lighting be appropriate, considering he's on the bottom and the tank is 20 inches high? (Lights are about 4 inches higher than that.)

I doubt that it's water quality as everything else (including the torch that I added at the same time) looks great...the best they've all ever looked actually. Only the brain is having issues.

The substrate is TBS sand, and yes it's very coarse. When he's expanded he seems high enough off the substrate that the flesh doesn't come in contact with the sand though.

He looks worse now. No new picture, but the skeleton is clearly visible in that original spot, and he has strands of tissue coming from a couple of other spots now. He's closed up.

And advice, or is he a goner?