open brain not doing well

[teena]

ive had it about a month, it was puffed out & looking good yester day, today its real small & hard, can someone let me know what going on?

 

[msn711]

What are your water parameters? Post specifics.

What is the current like around the brain?

Is there anything in the tank that could be picking at it? (angels?)

Can you post a pic?

 

[teena]

the blenny lays in it, i just blew it a little with the turkey baster, it sems to be softing up a little, i did feed it a small peice of table shrimp the other day, it looked like a small peice still in his mouth when it was down, i blew it out, as far as my water goes, im not seeing any other corals in stress, but ive been w/o a skimmer for a week, then i started getting red slime, i tested my RO water it said 44, my tap water was 45, the filters were only 6mo old, but then someone said it was my membrain, it should be here wed, ill go get a pic,

 

[teena]

 

[teena]

the blenny came & sat on it as soon as i got ready to take the pic,

 

[Wrench]

Mine wasn't happy at all when it was under bright light or moderate to heavy flow. I moved it to a calmer corner in the shade and it perked right up.

 

[teena]

should i move it? it was all puffed up before, i thought it liked alot of light, does it mind that blenny sitting on it,

 

[rachelcb80]

Mine seems to do fine with the direct light but it doesn't like direct current. When I first got it I had it in the middle of my tank and it was getting a pretty good current on it's right side. That side stayed deflated until I moved it to one end of the tank, out of heavy current. Now it all stays inflated during the day.

Not a good picture but I didn't realize it was common for Blennies to like brains!

 

[teena]

so when there down at night are they also that hard, or should they just be small & soft, what would it need to look like before i worry?

 

[rachelcb80]

I'm not an expert, I'm pretty new to it all but from what I've seen they should be compact at night, shrunk down but not clear to the skeleton and with their feeder tentacles out. Then when the lights come on, they should inflate.

What are your water parameters? Temp, pH, that kind of stuff.

Definitely get your RO membrane replaced. (Are you keeping up with changing your other filters in your RO unit? If you don't change them out every 3-6 months you can be putting a lot of stress on your membrane and that could be why it's gone bad really quick)

When it's tentacles are exposed (mostly at night or early morning before the lights come on) try feeding it some really small things. I squirt mine with cyclopeeze or freeze dried krill soaked in Selcon. A thawed cube of mysis is good too.

 

[teena]

i bought the unit used, but the filters were never used, but i orderd new filters along with the membrain,

 

[MalawianDude]

Im with Rach. Mine inflates i guess spreads out when lights on, then bunches up at night with ton of sweeper tentacles out. My sun coral has opposite rotation tho lol