Is my brain coral okay?

[Kawaii]

We had a brain coral in our 29g reef and yesterday we put it into our other 29g that finished cycling a few weeks ago. We also put in some mushrooms and polyps which are doing fine, and we have had a frogspawn and xenia in there for a week and that's been fine. The technique we use is taking the corals out and letting them sit for a minute to gel up and then putting them into the tank. We've never had a problem doing it this way in the past.

The brain was inflated the rest of the day after we put it in and it was also inflated when we woke up this morning. I was watching the tank and I saw that the Eibli angel in the tank went over and poked at the brain and it deflated a little bit but then the angel swam away. I watched a little longer and the angel didn't go back over at all.

I came back a few hours later and the brain was all closed up completely and I sat and watched for the while and the angel never came near it. I waited a few hours and kept checking on it and it hasn't opened up.

Do you think the angel is bothering it? Or that it just isn't adjusting to the water like the other corals? What should I do? Should I try target feeding it some mysis? Should I transfer it back over to the tank it was in? Does it just need some time to adjust?

 

[reefbuzz]

Can someone please elaborate on the "gel up" technique?

 

[Kawaii]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8242196#post8242196 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by reefbuzz
Can someone please elaborate on the "gel up" technique?

you let the coral sit for a minute and it will "gel up" which is its natural defense mechanism and it protects the coral from its new environment. that's basically all i know, sorry.

 

[Kawaii]

Here are the levels

tank with brain:
ph 8.3
normal alkalinity
<0.05 ppm nitrite
79.3 degrees
0 ppm ammonia
1.25 sg
0 ppm nitrate

tank brain was transferred from
ph 8.4
normal alkalinity
<0.05 ppm nitrite
82.0 degrees
0 ppm ammonia
1.24 sg
0 ppm nitrate

 

[Mr Sh0tgun]

Did you acclimate the brain to the new tank, or did you just put it in after letting it "gel up"?

 

[CraigG]

We didn't acclimate it. I haven't really acclimated many corals and never had a problem. I just let them slime up and place them where I want them. I know a lot of people who do this also.

I put some mushrooms, a frogspawn frag, some button polyps, and xenia in there also and they are all doing great. I placed him on a small bump of sand so his flesh wouldn't be against the sandbed, only his bottom skeleton. He was nice and inflated for about 30 hours, and all of a sudden in deflated back to the skeleton. I am very worried. I placed some mysis chunks in the tank and usually he will inflate quite a bit, nothing this time.

Perhaps I will try spot feeding him.

 

[CraigG]

Found what it was. We had recently purchased an Eiblii angel for the new tank and it was popping out of a rock opening and nipping the brain and darting back into the rocks. We caught him doing this quite a few times in a row so I moved it back into the reef tank. It's already starting to inflate back to normal.

Damn angels.