Candy Cane Almost Gone in 36 hours

[QuiGonJay]

Went out of town for a day and a half to find my candy cane frag nearly skeletal. ATO is used and ai hydra lights on auto cycle. Not able to do full water tests right now but a quick nitrate test shows 5 (pretty normal for my tank) and salinity of 1.024 also normal. Alk has dropped a bit from 8.1 to 7.8 ish. The frag has been growing very well over the past 9 months adding three to four heads. Other coral (duncan, gorgonians, Caribbean rose brain coral ) doing well and tank otherwise appears healthy. What might cause such a rapid decline?

 

[QuiGonJay]

Photo attached

 

[Sgt Jonny Cat]

hows the flow? And where do you have it positioned? Could it be getting too much light?

 

[QuiGonJay]

Same position it has been for 9 months, no light change no flow change. It is quite odd. I've not seen anything bothering it but will keep a close eye just in case.

 

[cloak]

Do you have any ornamental shrimp in your tank?

FWIW, I've had a peppermint shrimp go rouge on a few corals before.

 

[QuiGonJay]

Hmmm. I do have one peppermint . . . .

 

[QuiGonJay]

Not saying he couldn't decide to go rogue after many months but could verbatim snails be irritating it? I have had an outbreak of them lately. Can't seem to get rid of them.

 

[cloak]

I'm assuming you mean Vermetid snails? If so, these can irritate corals, but not to the point where it looks skeletal in 36 hours IMO. Also, these things are usually only a problem when you feed the tank or stir things up. This is when the slime comes out and starts to wreak havoc.

 

[QuiGonJay]

Ok. Thanks. Gonna go with predation by the shrimp or unknown worm. Now for the catching . . .

 

[chimmike]

1.024 seems low on salinity

 

[Sk8r]

1.024 is ok. But check your nitrate level. This coral is tolerant, but has its limits.

 

[s_kelley]

It doesnt look too terrible just a little annoyed and retracted, does your alk usually swing that much? Do you do anything usually that didnt get done while you were away? Dosing/feeding/etc? I would keep an eye out for things picking at it, try at night with a flashlight.

 

[QuiGonJay]

Thanks. Nitrates around 10 which is what my tank runs at, so no swings there. Alk could be a reason, though I'm not ruling out predation. Moved the peppermint shrimp to another tank and will keep a close eye tonight.

 

[clemdawg]

Do you have any ornamental shrimp in your tank?

FWIW, I've had a peppermint shrimp go rouge on a few corals before.

How did it go rogue?

 

[cloak]

How did it go rogue?

The peppermint shrimp was purchased to eat some Aiptasia in hard to reach spots around the tank, but within the first 48 hours or so it picked clean a small Favia frag that I had just purchased. This has also happened with other peppermint shrimp & corals such as a Leptastrea and a Chalice as well.. These were the real deal too btw. It wasn't a Camel shrimp.

 

[QuiGonJay]

Well I saw him sniffing around the candy cane last night so moved him to the softie tank which already had a peppermint. Will see if the candy cane starts to recover. Tried a homemade worm trap as well but no takers.

 

[QuiGonJay]

Seems to be recovering a bit. One head is still ripped to the skeleton so not sure if that one will recover. If progress continues I'm going to blame the shrimp I removed.

 

[QuiGonJay]

Seems to be recovering a bit. One head is still ripped to the skeleton so not sure if that one will recover. If progress continues I'm going to blame the shrimp I removed.

Photo of the half ripped apart coral.