Colt Coral going limp

[corwise]

I've had a large colt coral in my tank for the past 3 months or so. For the most part it's been dong great, opening up nicely. On occasion it shrinks down upon itself for a few hours before opening up again.
Yesterday afternoon I noticed it was looking limp. It wasn't closed, just leaning over as if it had lost any attempt to stand up. Today it's gotten worse.
I've checked my water, its fine. I have T5 lights. The other corals are all doing ok. Is there anything I can do to help it along? Do I need to take it out so it doesn't poison the rest of my tank? Thanks.

 

[kimbertent]

bump

i have same problem

 

[corwise]

Unfortunately it's only gotten worse since I posted this 10 days ago. It's now pretty much laying down and given up on life. Everything else in the tank is doing fine, so not sure what is going on.

 

[SitBackAndWatch]

set up your current so it sweeps under your colt and lifts it up. may be to late, but mine was doing that as well and now its sturdy as hell and huge.

 

[corwise]

Unfortunately, I took the colt out of my tank today. It had pretty much collapsed on itself, and when I pulled it out it was obviously rotting and coming apart. *shrug* Oh well, hopefully next time.

 

[paeSona]

it wont poision the tank only anemonies and certain boxfish etc. release toxins in the tanks when they die in your part theres always hope try to set up a quarintine tank or put it in your refugium if you have with a light on it will still probabley come around. try adding coral vite and check your water. would you happened to have an algae problem

 

[corwise]

An algea problem? I was getting a decent amount of green hair algea, but once I added my tang he cleared that up real fast. The sides of my tank get dirty pretty quickly, have to clean them off every other day or so. I'm not sure if that's due to my T5 lights (which are a lot brighter then my old lights), or maybe the coral food I'm adding to the tank. All water parameters show fine.

 

[Hormigaquatica]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8447170#post8447170 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by paeSona
it wont poision the tank only anemonies and certain boxfish etc. release toxins in the tanks when they die

Not even remotely true. Many soft corals and sponges are very well known for having some extremely toxic compunds in their tissue. Aside from that, just having a large amount of dissolving tissue will add ammonia and other water-polluting compunds to the tank. Never a good idea to let a coral (or any lifeform) rot away in a tank...

As far as the colt goes, I wish I had a good answer for you. A year ago I upgraded from a 55 to a 240 mostly because I had a colt that had grown Enormous- it was my favorite piece. After 3 years though, it suddenly started to self destruct. It looked fine one day, and the next day flopped over on its rock. A couple days later it began to dissolve. I know there are some reproductive strategies among certain soft corals thatinvolve apparent self destruction, releasing branchlets into the water to establish colonies elsewhere, but even the branches that appeared healthy after a week or so eventually died off. As you said, everything else appeared fine, including a number of corals I would consider to be much more delicate