Help my brain

[chrisstie]

Okay so the title leaves something to be desired.. but I've had this brain for about a month or so now. It's been doing great, it gets really puffy when the little dusters living on it mind their own business (the one in the center gets completely enclosed when its super happy)

But about a week or so ago I got this frag of zoos that weren't attached to anything. I rubberbanded themt o some rubble and stuck them on my sand.. a few good inches away from the brain. I suspect they are the cause of the discoloration\tissue recession in the lower left part of the brain.. but I could be wrong..

Any tips on what to do to help nurse this one back to health?

Here's a really big closeup

 

[chrisstie]

Anyone? The skeleton is showing where the discoloration was but it doesn't really look to be spreading, just that isolated area.

I am keeping my fingers crossed and monitoring my parameters closely to make sure its doin well.

In fact the last few days its been so puffy and wanting food it seems to be doing the best ever despite its little wound

 

[simonf]

A few quick questions....
How often/much are you feeding it?
What are you feeding it?
What are your params?
Any other changes recently?
Did you QT the zoas?

 

[Hormigaquatica]

There is a good chance that the zoanthids caused the irritation, assuming allother tnak params are correct. The coral looks to be in good shape otherwise. Does it still inflate as much as it did pre-zoa? As long as the animal is in good conditions, it should recover from that kind of damage. Might want to target feed it extra for a while (mysis, cyclops, daphnia, etc) to help the tissue heal quicker.

 

[chrisstie]

My params are:
1.024 sg
78-79 degrees temp
ph 8.1ish (depends on what time of day i measure)
alk ~ 8dkH (still getting used to the conversion)
Ca seems to run a little low around 390.. i add a little in liquid form while monitoring alk\pH to keep it up

I do weekly on the dot water changes in my 12g of about 30%.. it may seem a little extreme but it really helps to keep algae away and keep things stable in such a small tank.

I've had the coral about a month and it just started feeding this week! I was able to give the right polyp a mysis shrimp but the left seems puckered like it wont open for feeding- any recommendations on that?

the only change is the Zoos and no I didn't QT them because a) keeping a qt tank at this time would be about the same maintainance as my nano and b) they come from an extremely reputable LFS that i trust explictly.. I haven't found any parasites or weird looking things on them. If you have any tips or advice as to what not doing this could contribute to my brains current condition please share!

I *do* know that when I got my pistol shrimp he managed to undo the rubberband and steal the zoos for a night to make a nice door for his cave and its very possible when he did that the current could have even created physical contact between the two but I had them about 3-4 inches apart... I know to keep them away but wasn't sure if that was away enough.. the brain is on the sand bed on the bottom of my tank front and center..

the rest of it seems to be doing very well and it puffs up in the day.. retractsa little at night but gets all smushy\squishy looking with its feeder tentacles out. I've been offering cyclopeeze at night every other or every two nights.. its a real balance to not overfeed th etiny tank.

So far I haven't seen any weird white or brown stuff to indicate infection so my fingers are crossed.. just some tissue recession. Looks like it may get a little worse before better- there may be some affected tissue left to still heal.. I will try to post an updated pic after my finals.

 

[phishy2]

sounds to me the zoas touched the brain when the pistol moved them.... my zoas are about 4 inchs from my brain, but they are stuck to a rock, ive never incountered a problem with that. hope it grows back well, it looks nice.

on a side note, what kind of zoas did you get, and where? were they a good price, i also live in the orlando area -=X

 

[simonf]

Sounds good as far as tank conditions, etc..

I don't have any experience with zoa/open brain interactions so that certainly could be what caused this. Though all things being equal zoa are usually pretty tame.

Some things that come to mind
Normally if you don't feed open brains their tissues will begin to recede. It could have been starving when you got it and stress/only just starting to feed it is causing this to happen. If its puffing up during the day and putting out tentacles at night it should be able to recover with regular feedings. If you are having trouble getting a strong feeding response try different foods; mysis, cyclopeeze, raw table shrimp, formula 1 have all worked for me just make sure the pieces are small. Also you can try moving into a small container outside your tank so it has more time to eat before current/tankmates remove the food. This has the advantage that you can put a bunch of food in the container with it and not worry about fouling the tank with tons of uneaten food.

Also it looks like their is some sand on it and while open brain usually don't like a lot of flow the do seem to like enough to keep them clean.

Another thought. What else is upflow/upstream from it? I recently had to move an enchino from up stream of my open brain because its streamers were getting a bit too long at night.

Keep up on the feeding and you should be ok.

Simon

 

[chrisstie]

Hmm. Well the left polyp is getting worse but the right seems okay. The right is eating and doing well but the tissue has receeded a lot from the left.

The sand was a blooper from me messing in the tank earlier I don't let it get dirty!

As far as anything else in the tank it is only 12g so its small. I have some normal mushrooms, ricordea, a toadstool leather, trumpets and branching frogspawn (which is nowhere near anything where its feeders can reach)


Phishy2- I got some for free for being a good customer, when I went to zoaid i think they're Blowpop's http://zoaid.com/index.php?module=Gallery2&g2_itemId=727

I also have some hell's fire or gumball machine(i think.. all red) and some supernova. I am hoping to get some mountain dew green and some blue ones soon too AND i just put up a 55 thats going to be ready after it cycles

 

[phishy2]

cool those blowpops look nice, im also wanting some mt dew green and some blue ones -=) probably red as well, i only have orange delights at the moment. going to be asking for them for xmas.

im having troubles in my tank at the moment though, have cyno growing, my zoas are closed and my brain is showing some recesion, im confused though because all my parameters are in range as well... i'll be seeking help in another thread though.

good luck with the brain, and the zoas.