Kenya tree (Capnella Sp.) branch tip necrosis

[Sharpie129]

Ok so I have a 24g nanocube (yes I know they grow fast but no one else in our area has them so I have a lot of people interested) and I got a purple Kenya tree about 3 weeks ago... My LFS had just gotten it in and it hadn't even opened yet but since I knew a purplish capnella was hard to come by, I got it... For the past three weeks it has not opened at all... for a little while, its stalk was seeming to inflate a little but I have yet to see polyp extension... I had it in medium flow and didn't move it so as not to tress it but I have since tried it in high flow and another medium flow area... Two days ago our A/C went out and the tanks temp went up to 86-87... I have since made some changes and brought the temp down and while that won't happen again, it seemed to be the last straw for the poor tree... it developed black spots on the very tips of each of the branches and I've done hours and hours of research on this... It seems that this is rare and happens either with a combination of high stress and high temps or..... in another case, due to possible starvation... (its under 108W PC so no light starvation)

I'm pretty sure the tip necrosis is due to the coral's high stress and possibly even starvation since it hasn't had any polyp extension in at least 3 weeks... What do I do? Right now all my params are fine, I just can't get it to open at all. Should I cut off all of the black tips (which is a lot of tips to cut)? Should I completely frag it to pieces since the rock that it came on was/is cracked in half so the base isn't stable and maybe stressing it that way? I've also heard something about suspending chilli coral and other similar things upside down but that seems only for dendronephtids, not regular neptheids... I'm just out of ideas on how to get this thing to open...
-Nathaniel
PS... all I have that could really be causing allelopathy is a small frag of frogspawn but its far away from that...

 

[Sharpie129]

Ok, I finally have the chance to show some pics... here's what the dying tips look like...

I also have a pic of the most it ever got inflated... notice no polyp extension... this is the best it ever looked...

 

[Hormigaquatica]

Unfortunately, its not likely to recover. Once a coral- especially a more delicate one, like most Nephtheids- starts that black necrosis, it usually melts away quickly. Not ALL the time- Ive had a couple recover for me- but more likely than not. And, you are correct in that the temperature spike is probably to blame- that has been the common factor in most cases Ive seen of this condition.

You can try to frag it apart, this group of corals dont always take well to cutting, so you risk it simply speeding the decay process up. But- if it were mine, I would be razor blading it. Make sure you do this Outside the tank; in some cases if that black tissue floats off and contacts another coral, it can spread (between soft corals anyhow- I dont know how stony corals would react to it). Once you get it situated, I would have it somewhere with pretty strong current, and moderate light- not real intense.

On a side note, with these types of corals, make sure they are opening fully and healthy before you buy them. These often take shipping really poorly, and never recover. The truth is, most of the time a purpleish color on a new arrival is a bad sign- usually a symptom of a difficult trip. I bet the water in its bag on arrival at the store was... less than pristine looking. If you want one that is Actually purple, and no just sickly, try to find it from a hobbiest with an established, healthy colony, or from a store that has had a good looking specimen for a week or two at least. Its better to be slow on the draw and lose a potential colony to another buyer than to risk a nuclear meltdown in your tank at home.

 

[Hormigaquatica]

Oh, and nephtheids are usually the aggressor when it comes to allelopathy- not often the victim. Im not aware of any chemical warfare in Euphyllia species (I guess there could be, but not that Ive ever heard of). So... your frogspawn is innocent... lol

 

[Sharpie129]

Actually... while a lot of toadstool leathers are really aggressive, capnella sp. is especially non toxic and produces no know responses... Euphillia sp. actually do produce allelopathic responses (mainly targeted at other euphilia sp.), but given the I've been arguing with the idiots over at wetwebmedia and I'm never contacting them again... They seem to tell me that my small frogspawn and even possibly my zooanthids are causing my problems and that the only solution is to return it etc... They don't understand the definition of a nano reef and they certainly don't trust outside information on the number of people with small tanks that don't have this problem... The moral of the story, if they don't have an answer they tell you to "reread their site and move it to another system" instead of bothering them, even though I've put in at least 13 hours of reading on that site... In other words, if they don't know the answer, they turn into super jackasses... apparently, I'm the only person in this hobby that only has one tank and that makes me ignorant and a waste of their time...

As to an update ... I'm pretty sure that it was the heat... while the necrosis hasn't disappeared, its not progressed very much, if at all... when I do brush off the tissue, more necrosis appears over night but it seems like the coral is fighting it... It is starting to slightly inflate today, or at least not look as droopy, If this continues throughout the day, I'm probably not going to frag it and see if it takes care of the necrosis on its own... if no improvement, I'm removing all of the injured sites and possibly splitting it at its main 3 trunks... I might throw in another small powerhead for it since the high flow now seems to be its preference...

For the first time in days, I actually have hope... While wetwebmedia told me I was wrong to think that this stuff was mostly indestructible, I'm starting to realize that yet again they don't know crap because they only hear about problems... They have been so rude, and I did everything they asked and more, all because I told them that I researched their site for hours and knew that it wasn't a few problems (when one of the crew responded to me, they didn't even know what allelopathy was)... Anyone else here have thoughts, either one helping this stuff recover or the idiots at WWM?

 

[TRITON1]

I seem to be having similar trouble. Mind taking a look at it?
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1129721