Open faced brain - not opening

[bdturtle21]

We've had an open-faced brain in our tank for about a year now. It has been doing really well, until recently. At first I attributed this to low Alk/Ca, which we have slowly increased over the past month to normal levels, and maintain now w/ dosing (b-ionic). Here are the tank parameters:
Salinity - 1.024
Temp - 78
pH - 8.33
Alk - 8.5dkh
Ca - 540ppm
Nitrates, Nitrites - 0ppm
Phosphate - 21ppb

We do 10% water changes every 2 weeks (minimum). The Alk is pretty stable now, but we're still trying to determine the exact amount to dose daily, so it does range from 8.5dkh-8.0dkh. We're shooting to keep it at 8.2dkh.

The tank is mostly LPS, with a few (new) SPS. Everything in the tank is doing well, but the open-faced brain won't open and I'm concerned it might be losing some tissue along the ridges near its "mouths".

I've attached two pictures here - one of the brain today, all tucked up and not very happy. And one from about 5 months ago, when the brain was really happy.

The tissue still looks good, it is just very sucked in. I suspect our yellowtail blenny is nipping it - I've seen her swim by it several times this morning.

Is there anything we can do to stop the blenny? Any way to put a cage around the brain to protect it? We've been thinking of setting up another tank, and will do so soon (especially if we need to do so to protect this brain), but what can we do to protect it in the meantime?

Or, do you think something else is going on? We haven't introduced new fish or corals recently. I did pull the brain out and dip (Coral Rx) - there were no parasites and the brain hasn't improved since being dipped.

Please help - this is our favorite coral!!

Thank you in advance for any thoughts and suggestions!!

 

[C.Eymann]

Could be a fish nipping like you suspect, have you made any changes to your lighting recently by any chance?

 

[bdturtle21]

Could be a fish nipping like you suspect, have you made any changes to your lighting recently by any chance?

My lights crashed (I run AI Hydra 52) 2 weeks ago and I had to reset the program - I run a custom program, and reset it to the same as it was before. I upped the max % by 3%. I run the lights at 14K, with a 4hour ramp up and 4 hour ramp down, max light 60%, and ~1 hour at max light. (The light is almost too much for a 55 gallon, but I got it with my next tank in mind...)

I did just correct for a really low alk - it got down to 6dkh. I slowly raised it using sodium bicarb over about 5 days (2 weeks ago) and now keep it at 8.5dkh. I'm still trying to determine how much I need to dose, so the alk does fluctuate a bit, from 8.2dkh to 8.6dkh (not daily, but every 4-5 days).

I measured my pH this evening (same time I always do) and it's down to 8.13. I use the Hannah pH meter, so feel pretty good about the measurements. I did just do a 10% water change, so will recheck tomorrow (same time) and see if it is back to the normal ~8.3.

I've read/heard that raising the Alk can change how the light (especially LEDs) penetrates the water. Do you (or anyone reading this) know anything about this? Is it possible that since I now have my alk within normal ranges, the light is somehow penetrating more?

I do think it has something to do with the lights - now that they are super dim (~5%), the brain is out slightly more... see picture.

Thank you!!

 

[cougareyes]

Your alk is good, your ca is pretty high. If I'm reading your phosphates correctly, that may be your problem.

 

[bdturtle21]

Thanks everyone for your help here!

We determined that our bicolor blenny was nipping the open-faced brain. We got a 29g nano tank for the brain and it is doing MUCH better!! Now I just have to figure out how to get the bicolor out of the 54g - she's destroying all our zoas!

Any ideas on how to catch a really shy fish, short of breaking down the entire tank?

Thanks in advnace!

 

[Tanthaitrung]

I usually pick my fishes at night, when they are sleeping. Suddenly, open the lights, now I have few minutes to catch them before they wake up

 

[jstack]

well the lifespan say's 3-8 years sooo....short of breaking down the tank and maybe taking a drill to the rock it will hole up in. I have transferred tank's and the one fish I have never been able to catch is my Starry he just hitchhikes tanks

 

[bdturtle21]

Thanks for the advice!

We ended up getting a new tank for the brain (29g Innovative Marine, used/already cycled from LFS), AI PrimeHD, and basics for filtration - and it is back to being happy (after about a few weeks of healing). (Here's a pic)

Regarding the bicolor blenny - she's still in our 55g and seems to now be enjoying snacking on my Euphyllias. Has anyone ever had this problem before?

I'm wondering if I don't have another pest in the tank - I do have some asterina starfish - have had them for a while. Until recently they were the small white ones, and now I'm seeing bigger, red ones that seem to be more of a problem, from what I can read (http://www.garf.org/Star/starfish.html). And, I see them around the base of my Euphyllias (aussie torch, pink hammer, and orange frogspawn) and my Duncan coral. I'm thinking they may be what's causing the corals to be unhappy?

Has anyone ever had asterina eat their Euphyllias?

Thanks!

 

[comprisedpuma]

Time to get a Harlequin!

 

[bdturtle21]

Time to get a Harlequin!

I actually just did and he is going to town on the asterinas!

I have a really healthy population of asterina in a 55g tank - I'm hoping this will be enough to sustain the Harlequin (his name is "ET"). From what I've read they can eat 11-15 asterina a day. Based on the number of asterina in my tank now, I think they should be able to reproduce at a rapid enough rate to keep ET alive.