Bubble in Tongue Coral????? HELP!!

[rustybucket145]

I posted this on the LPS forum with no Response. Maybee someone here will be able to help.

I have recently gotten my mom involved in keeping a saltwater aquarium. For christmas this year I got her a 55gal setup. She has probably about 50lbs of live rock, several corals that I propagated and gave to her. Everything in the tank looks great and her levels have been 0 since day 1. She has a DSB that was seeded from my established tank and for lighting a 175 Metal Halide Pendant and NO Flourescents for Actinic.

On a trip to the LFS last month she was sold a Tounge Coral. For the last month the tounge coral has been doing 'good' it has been eating regularly. I have only seen the coral 1 time (about a week ago) and in all outward appearance it seemed very healthy. Full polyp extension and the coral was 'elongated'.

Yesterday she called me and said the coral had developed an 'air bubble' on one end. I don't have much experience with the tounge coral but this doesn't seem normal to me. She lives about 3hrs away from me so I got her to take some pics of the coral and email them to me so I could post them here. I would really appreciate any advice that someone could give. Her pics are kinda fuzzy but you can see the 'bubble'.

Thanks to anyone who has any input.

 

[nebraskareef]

Stick it with a syringe, see if it's air or some type of "mass".

Seriously though, I would do that, but outside of the tank itself.

That right there is something I've never seen in my life, and I've got several "tounge" corals.

 

[rustybucket145]

I doubt I would be able to convince my mom to stick her coral with a syringe. She freaked out when I showed her how to propagate her mushrooms. But if everybody thinks this is the way to go, I could try. Anybody else got any ideas?

 

[nebraskareef]

Even a small poke with a needle. I mean, I would do it, but who knows what could be lurking under that bubble? The small hole the needle would create could potentially kill the coral if it were unable to heal.

Even though I'm no coral expert, and I'm pretty doped up on pain meds right now, My initial guess here, even though it sounds pretty unlikely, is that there could have been a small rip in the tissue. Algae grew between the tissue and the skeleton, and now its producing the air we see under the tissue.

this is really blowing my mind now.

 

[chrissreef]

poke it... i had a barnacle under the tissue on mine that kept growing so i mashed it with a nail.... the coral tissue regew over the "cleared" spot where the barnacle used to be and all is well now.

 

[rustybucket145]

So you are saying to try to 'pop it like a pimple'?

 

[minimalist]

Tell your mom over the phone to "pop it like a pimple" and please record the conversation for our amusement.

 

[rustybucket145]

lol, that would be humorous

 

[rustybucket145]

ok, just talked to my mom. She said the bubbles that are in the pics above have dissapeared but....... Another one is begining to form on the other end of the coral. She also said the polyps were closed. Not that that really means anything (unless they stay closed)

 

[nebraskareef]

This is getting stranger by the post!

I still think algae.

 

[flyhigh123]

maybe its budding.. lol