Sudden Change in Candy Cane Coral - Predation?

[QuiGonJay]

I came home from a business trip of only 36 hours to find my Candy Cane frag regressed to a near skeleton state. It has been in the same place for 9 months and has grown from one head to four. Tank parms seem to be consistent as is light and other coral (duncan, etc) seem happy.

kH could be a culprit as it dropped a bit from 8.1 to 7.8 but I'm wondering if it could be predation. While nothing new has been added, is it possible a Peppermint shrimp decided to munch on it?

In general, would such a drastic change indicate predation?

Really want to save the little guy but am at a bit of a loss. Thanks.

 

[Chris T.]

mine did the same thing, im chalking it up to the butterfly fish i had in there i saw him nipping at it but it has not really gotten back to the state it was before
the butterfly fish has been gone for a month

 

[QuiGonJay]

I removed the shrimp to a softie tank in case he was the culprit, we will see if he can recover. Fingers crossed.

 

[jml1149]

Do you run GFO or have you changed it recently? I find my candy canes are super sensitive to changes with GFO.

 

[QuiGonJay]

No, I dont.