orange plate dying. Any suggestions?

kware

New member
My orange plate coral is dying? It started on it's left side and is working it's way around , section by section at a time. What can I do to stop the rest from dying? I'd post a pic but I lost my camera. All my paramaters are good. I just bought it and I don't want to loose another coral. Is there anything I can do to save it?. It will be all the way dead in a few days.

I looked it over and nothing is bothering it. I also moved it over to an area with a little more flow. The funny thing is, it is dying off counterclockwise. the living flesh on the left is doing good still, while it continues to die off to the right?
 
I am sorry that I can't help diagnose the problem but I was reading recently that these corals, even after completely dead, can regenerate and come back up to 8 months after is seems all hope is lost. So, I would say that even if the worst happens don't toss the skeleton. Anyone else heard of this? I think I read it on RC in the past few days. Good luck.
 
I just read that too and if it totally dies I will still leave it in the tank. We'll see what happens. I just can't figure it out. I did a 20 gallon water change last night and I am doing another 10 tonight. I will try topost a pic.
 
I thought these corals didn't like a ton of flow?!?! I would assume that, like a lot of LPS, that too much flow can actually damage the tissue. Not sure if this is your problem (pics would help) but I would put it in a place of low to moderate flow and try to feed with pieces of sardine, squid, shrimp, etc. if it will take it.

Good Luck!
 
I will try feeding it tonight. Anybody know about light intensity. It's on the bottom of my 90 gal tank with 2 250 halides?
 
This is taken from Blue Zoo Aquatics.

Plate Coral-Orange

Scientific Name Cycloseris spp.
Care Level Beginner
Disposition Semi-aggressive
Placement in tank Sand
Light Level Moderate
Water Flow Low-Medium Intermittent
Diet Carnivore, Zooplankton
Range Jakarta, Bali, Solomon, Fiji
Supplements Calcium, Strontium, Iodine
 
I love the cyclos. I used to keep one on the bottom of a 125 h (24" deep) under nothing but VHOs. I've had two in my 90 now; the first one didn't last long at all but the second looks great. This tank has 2Ã"”250W SE halides (20K). Nothing's changed, but this one has it's feeler out all the time. Go figure. Anyway, spot feeding shrimp or silversides always seemed to make them happy.
 
A week ago I got sick of my Pencil Urchin knocking rocks over and hurting all my corals, so I put him in my sump. I think maybe he got sick(not used to the 24 hour lighting??). I picked him up and he barley moved ( he usually moves his spines alot) and on the underside of it was what looked some kind of flourescent fungus? The urchin had a bad smell and some of his spines were almost falling off. I don't know if the urchin was the cause of my water problems or if it got sick because of the water but I got rid of it anyway . Hopefully my corals will now get better. We'll see.
 
Yeah the urchin whould crawl over my soft corals like my mushrooms , and while scraping the rock for algae the shrooms would fall off. It would poke my frogspawn and irritate them. It also knocked rocks over hitting corals, I must say I'm not sad it's gone.
 
If the plate is bleaching or you can see its skeleton then it's probably starving to death. Get a liter bottle of soda, cut it in half about 1/3 from the top of the bottle. Clean up the edges so they are not sharp. Then place the bottle over the plate. Then target feed food through the opening of the bottle gently so the food slowly rains down on plate over time.

For food you can use anything like finely chopped meats, cyclopes, crushed fish pellets... Keep the plate covered for a few hours as they are slow eaters.

It may be best to feed when lights are out as this is their normal feeding time. As they get used to this process they will eat when lights are on.

Good luck!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14157250#post14157250 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by skearse
I love the cyclos. I used to keep one on the bottom of a 125 h (24" deep) under nothing but VHOs. I've had two in my 90 now; the first one didn't last long at all but the second looks great. This tank has 2Ã"”250W SE halides (20K). Nothing's changed, but this one has it's feeler out all the time. Go figure. Anyway, spot feeding shrimp or silversides always seemed to make them happy.

If your plate has its feeding polyps extended all the time then it may well be starving (it's always looking for food). You are correct, target feeding this coral is a MUST. They are meat eaters and need to be target fed a few times a week for optimal health.
 
I targrt fed it mysis shrimp last night and it didn't look like it did anything. The liter soda bottle thing is a good idea I will try that tonight. It now has a little dead flesh around it's mouth though.
 
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