Trachyphyllia Health

[mkarston]

I got 5" healty Trachyphyllia about 2 months ago. It has always been really health, and actually eats small silver side I feed it.

It has always goes from big and fat and open, to smaller and closed up from day to day, time of day, after a feeding, etc....

Well the last week or so it has not really opened wide open at all and last night I noticed it was excreting some sort of brown slimly stringy stuff.

Now a few things have changed in my system that I know of. I have recently changed my filtration / sump / fuge system (for the better). Everything else in my tank (fish & corals) are all doing well. Along with this upgrade my current changed as well; I believe there is now more current at the bottom of the tank where my Trachyphyllia sits.

Also, I noticed that one of my Blue Jaw Triggerfish nipped at it (the only time I've every it nip at anything in my tank)

This is in a 270 gal reef tank with ~300lbs of LR.

Thanks,
Craig

 

[Janice12]

Well...Trach's don't need much in the flow department. Don't get me wrong, they need it, but not bearing down on them. Also, streight laminar flow is not good for LPS. Some times that type of flow will abraid the tissue off of the skeleton. Trachs are also usually in possesion of a conical base, indicating that it came from a sandy lagoon area, and should be placed in the sand away from rocks to insure that the tissue when the coral inflates doesn't rub raw.

The brown stringy stuff sounds like zoosanthelli (sp??) It may be on its way to bleaching, if that happens feed it small meals several times weekly so that it doesn't starve. Hope this helps

 

[Wrench]

I thought the stringy brown stuff was, well, coral poop. FWIW, my Trach. did better when I moved it to less light and less flow. Kinda stuck it back in the corner and forgot about it for a few weeks and it perked right up. I had it in the front of the tank under lots of light and moderate flow.

 

[Pitcom]

I have a few of the open brains, green and red metallic, all of mine excrete the stringy stuff. I was told it was normal and is waste product. i was also told if they are in a low flow area and the waste gets stuck in front of them to give them a hand and wave it away from them.

 

[elegance coral]

They do that when they are getting a little to much light. It is possible that with the upgrade in filtration that your water is cleaner/clearer and more light is getting to your brain. If you can back it a little further from the light I bet it will open up better and stop discharging the algae.

 

[mkarston]

Thanks everyone for the help. Yeah, I've since moved it to a less light part of the tank, and it is looking better. I amazed that my lights are penetrating so strongly to the bottom of a 30" deep tank (3 80W T5, and 3 250W MH).

It still isn't as full and healthy as it once once, but seems to be coming back nicely.

 

[mkarston]

Huh.... so after my last post, it was fat and happy looking for like 1-2 days, and went back to looking all closed up again. Can someone advise me as to what are optimal accommodations for these guys? This way I can compare it to what he has and move him accordingly. My LFS guy also mentioned that worms in the sand may be irritating it.

I have 210 gal display (30" deep) with 3 T5 bulbs running at 100W, and 3 14K 250W MH. I have a rock stack of about 300 lbs, so I can get him as close or as far away from the light. I have good current throughout the tank (~15x turnover), but I'm sure I can find an area with less if thats what it prefers?

Here is a picture to help show its home (he's currently in the bottom left):