problem with tube coral

[steve9k]

My TBS rock came with a beautiful big hunk of brown tube coral. It's been doing great since the tank cycled (about a month ago) until this week -- I've noticed that some of the tubes appear to have "died" -- the tentacles are gone and the tubes are shriveled and have lost their color. Sadly I've been seeing more & more tubes in this state every day.

Water quality is excellent (0 Am, 0 Ni, ~0 Na, 0 Phos). I've been feeding liquid food about twice a week (Kent Phyloplex). I have clusters of tube corals throughout the tank -- so far, they seem ok, it's just the big purty one that seems to be in trouble.

Thoughts, anyone?

 

[docklink]

What is your pH? Have you been dosing anything (kalk water, sodium bicarb, etc.)? Where in the tank is the coral located and what kind of lighting are you using?
Exposure to sudden changes in alkalinity, pH or some concentrated chemicals can adversely affect the corals. Really strong light or sudden changes in lighting may affect them.

 

[steve9k]

pH is 8.2. Haven't been dosing anything. Coral is sitting on some rock at mid-tank level, under MH lighting.

I'll try to post a picture later today, maybe a visual will help.

 

[phil519]

Phytoplex - I assume is similar to phytoplankton - which is the basic food source for pretty much everything in the ocean. That said though - it's too small for Cladocora arbuscula (tube coral) to consume. I'd suggest getting something meater if you insist on feeding the coral. Phyto is great for filter feeders like feather dusters and clams - but less so for polyps and other corals.

Of course - a pic will definitely help as I am guessing your are referring to cladocora arbuscula.

 

[steve9k]

Ok, finally got some pictures uploaded.

The first picture is of the tube coral the day after I got the TBS shipment. Notice half of it is white, but tentacles are visible:

The next picture is of a different piece of tube coral, but is representative of what the above piece looked like about 2 weeks ago: all tubes brown, with tentacles extended:

And here is what it looks like now -- some tubes white, some shriveled, and no tentacles:

Incidentally, this is the current state of all my tube corals, including the one from the 2nd picture.

Any thoughts?

 

[phil519]

this is purely a guess - so take it for what it's worth. Is it possible the MH is too strong for the coral? That is, it has adjusted to your strong light by retracting the tentacles? Do you check at night with a flashlight to see if the tentacles are out? Perhaps it needs to be moved lower in the tank?

From the pic - it definitely is cladocora arbuscula and it does appears as if something is bothering it. Besides my initial guess - another hypothesis would be water flow too strong (aimed directly at it) and less likely some fish/shrimp constantly picking at em.

Maybe someone else has other ideas?

 

[mhe]

Something similar happend to me, I believe it was 'cause my salinity crept up - I got a refractometer, found my salinity to be 1.030 (!) and once I slowly dropped it back to 1.025 the coral recovered. You may want to check your salinity...

Strangly, now the star coral that came with the rock's not doing so well - getting a little bleached - anyone have tips on keeping the star coral healthy?

- Michael

 

[phil519]

bleaching sounds like maybe it is also too close to the lights...(purely a guess on my part though).

 

[steve9k]

I checked last night -- didn't see any tentacles. Salinity is at 1.023, has been pretty much constant.

Unfortunately, what I DID see was my mithrax crab chowing down on a snail. Normally I see this guy just picking at stuff on the rock, but I guess he got a case of the midnight munchies. Time for him to find a new home!

 

[phil519]

salnity is a little low - is there a specific reason for keeping it at 1.023? another random thought might be swings in ph between daytime and nighttime hours. Have you checked your alkalinity?

The mithrax crab likely killed a dead/dying snail. However I still don't trust any crabs (other than porcelains) so I'd try and remove it.

 

[Fountainhead]

Steve, I don't have an answer for you, but mine did exactly the same thing. My TBS rock is about 14 months old now, and the tube corals looked great up until about 2 months ago. Now they all look just like those in your picture. There have been no changes in my tank that would account for it, and everything else is fine. All of them kind of went at once, too.

I'm going to tag along and see if anyone has any ideas. I keep thinking they'll come back, but so far they haven't.

 

[fvandijk]

I agree with Phil- phyto is probably too small for tube corals. Mine look much happier since I've started using cyclopeeze a few times a week. As to why only one of the colonies is being affected I can't be sure, but it may just be the first of the bunch to show symptoms.

 

[lossman]

Our tube corals and star corals seemed to bleach out and die off shortly after putting the rock in the tank. I was disappointed as I was hoping to keep most of it alive...it's so pretty! Anyway, our first batch of rock went in the tank in February. Second half the beginning of April. This week I noticed that the tube coral and star coral are both starting to come back and I even have new colonies starting in areas that I did not see this stuff on. In fact, I am finding new sponges and tunicates all the time. Today I noticed what is possibly a baby christmas tree worm, navy in color. Not positive on it as it is so tiny and my magnifying glass is not strong enough to really bring it in focus, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Last week I found an orange fleshy limpet in the tank. Never even knew it was there! So, to make a long story short, you may notice some initial die off of the life on the rock, but it can definitely come back as time goes on.

 

[banditfl]

I have had my TBS 10g setup for a year now and I lost a couple of colonies of tube coral a few moths ago. They looked great and just one day they were turning white then gone. I still have some nice colonies and they are even showing growth. Low light high light it does not seem to matter. The only thing I noticed that does affect them is Algea growth and Cyno bacteria on them. Scrub it off and they do do fine.

 

[bobt2]

the same thing is happening to me. lost my star coral and parts of my tubes are turning white. the interesting thing is it only appears to be happening to part 2 corals. part 1 tubes look fine. cal 400,alk 12.0 and mag 1300.