trachyphyllia lost big chunk of tissue

[tycham]

Hi, This AM I noticed that the flesh on one lobe of my Trachyphyllia the tissue seemed a little loose. When I came back from running errands, a big chunk of tissue is gone and the skeleton is exposed on that lobe. Our water chemistry is good, no ammonia or nitrates, ph 8.14 Salinity 121. I'm wondering if this is the work of a crab (I have about 4 emerald crabs) or my flame hawkfish who kind of uses this coral as a trampoline....

More importantly, what do I do??? Will it survive this? I've noticed that now that the tissue is missing, my purple tang and coral beauty both seem awfully interested, tho I haven't seen them nip it ...We have huge scarlet hermit crabs in the refusium so I'm nervous about putting it down there. We have another tank but there is a squareback anthias, a gb maroon clown and a bi-color angel plus multiple crabs. Suggestions anyone?
Thanks, Romayne

 

[kramgnik]

There are multiple possible causes for this problem. Your angel or crab could have been the culprit. I would place it in the sump (minus the huge crab) as long as it recieves sufficient light. I would be hesitant about placing it in with another angel. They have tendency to pick at LPS corals. Good luck
Mark

 

[DonavonsReef]

Had the same problem with my pigmy angel apparently these corals are quite tasty.

 

[tycham]

Thanks Mark, its not just one huge hermit...there are three in that refusium, so we made a 3 sided box out of egg crate material, left it the tank and covered it....however, one of the emerald crabs has gotten in there and made himself at home underneath the coral. I'm thinking maybe the crab is just cleaning out the dead tissue and algae, but he has turned a dark brown instead of the flourescent green he usually is, so thats not working real well, ...it is inflated tho. So now I'm thinking I'll have to move all the hermits over to the other refusium and place the coral down there as you suggested. Will algae growth on the exposed skeleton part be a problem, cause I can already see some. Are there any supplements that will facilitate the tissue regrowth? Any idea how long it will take to regrow?

 

[kramgnik]

Just keep him isolated and give him appropraiate conditions. Inflation is a good sign. Try to directly feed him chunks of food such as mysis shrimp to aid in his healing. Algae may become a problem and irritate the surrounding healthy tissue, leading to recession. Keep water quality at its best to dicourage bad algae and promote coraline and skeletal growth.
PS if the hermits are really huge they probably aren't scarlets and therefor probably aren't reef safe. Most safe crabs have smooth legs while unsafe have a hairy look to them.
Mark

 

[tycham]

Thanks Mark, I've moved him down to the refusium and am feeding him often...the flow is pretty strong down there tho so I'm not sure how much he's getting...and the opening to the top of the refusium is too small to do the liter bottle thing. He seems pretty happy. I moved all the hermits over to another tank refusium...they were sold as Mexican scarlets and when we had them in the tank itself they didn't really eat any coral but they were always knocking stuff over. The are probably really bored in the refusium, but they are growing enough that they need new shells. I threw the crab that I suspected of damaging the trachy down there too. He had also gotten quite large and didn't seem to have the finesse around the corals that our other emeralds do.
Thanks again for your input.