Brain Stung By Maxi Mini

[Dcash88]

Hello

I got a brain coral about a week ago and it isnt doing very well. I believe it got stung by my mini maxi because I moved it from a different tank into the tank with the brain coral. Then I went to dinner and when I came back the anemone was on the sand in the vicinity of the coral and I'm pretty sure it got blown into the brain coral by the current. The left half of it seems to be not fully opening and it has been about three days now. So now I am wondering if you can tell from the pictures if this is what happened or if it is a different problem. I am also wondering if the brain will heal from this or not.

It is in a 40 breeder with 29 gallon sump. 2 x 150 hqi 14000k metal halide lamp. It's on the substrate with low to moderate flow. I have a maroon clown, royal gamma, and a yellow tail damsel in the tank. The tank has been up for 9 months, has about 60lbs of live rocks, and my other corals are doing great. The parameters are: 8.3ph, 1.026 sg, 80 degrees, 0ppm nitrates, 0.04ppm phosphates, 440 mg/L calcium, 11 dKH. I'm lowering the calcium and alk a little as I like to keep it close to NSW and use less 2 part so it should be 420/and about 9dKH soon.

I'm going to post the pictures in a second because I can't figure out how to resize them on this tablet.

Thank you
Daniel

 

[Dcash88]

Here is a pic

 

[cloak]

Your parameters and lighting seem ok. I wouldn't worry about it too much. It just needs some time to heal. If you can, try feeding it a little. This will definitely help with the recovery process. GL.

 

[Dcash88]

I have been feeding it mysis at night so I will continue to do that.

Do you know if that is even what it would look like if it got stung?

After looking at it some more I am wondering if it could have to do with the lighting. Where I have it placed seems to have one half shaded a lot more than the other half. Would it look like that from too much/ too little light?

 

[Dcash88]

The area that is white is spreading a lot. It got much worse yesterday and today. So what do you think is causing this and how can I help it?

 

[Thunder3]

If its directly under the halide move it to the side of tank. If not it will be dead soon. It still might be too late. I would dip it also. THat anemone did the damage.

 

[Dcash88]

Maybe it is hard to see from the picture but the white part is not the skeleton, there is tissue over it, it has just lost its pigment. I have revived corals from much worse then this so I am confident that it is not too late if I can identify the problem and implement the solution.

I was under the same impression as you about the lighting. Initially it was half way in the shade and half way in the light, once it started turning white I turned the coral so that all of it was in the shade. However it has only gotten worse since then.

I knew that anemone had not gotten a good enough grip yet before I left to go out, but my girlfriend wouldn't stop nagging me to hurry up lol!

However the more I am reading about anemone stings on corals the less I think the anemone stung the coral. From what I have read the sting from a maxi mini is not as strong as many other anemones such as a LTA or BTA. I have also been reading that the sting from a BTA or LTA can sometimes take prolonged exposure to kill the tissue of a coral. Also that the general reaction to a sting is tissue necrosis. So if my coral did in fact get stung it would have been in passing and not a prolonged exposure. In addition, my coral doesn't have any tissue loss just color loss. So since none of the tissue is dead I am beginning to think it was not stung or if it was that it is not the primary problem and there is something else going on.

Any ideas or thoughts?

 

[Dcash88]

It appears that I was wrong about the anemone sting. Now it just looks like a typical bleaching open brain. No tissue loss just color loss. I moved it into the shade when this all happened but I tried putting it in a even darker place almost like a cave. It was getting pretty much no light in there but it still did not help it to get its color back.

Most recently I have added two window screens over the top of the tank where the coral is located.

By the way how often can/should I do a iodine dip, it looks the best directly following a dip?