What happened overnight to my bubble coral?

[NedFlounders]

Yesterday:



Today:



Every other coral in the tank looks great and happy. What on earth would cause this? It usually deflates at night but always inflates the next day. This time it just looks nearly dead :/

 

[username in use]

It actually looks like the flesh is torn across some of the skeleton.

Do you have any crabs in that tank?

 

[vcam]

Same thing just happened to my hammer... one day great, next half dead

I suspect a skunk cleaner since I witnessed it ripping the heads off one of my torchs :/ He will be removed soon if he even looks at them wrong

 

[NedFlounders]

Yes I have Scarlett crabs and a few blue legs. I also have a cleaner shrimp. But everyone is well fed and I've never witnessed any inverts being destructive.

 

[username in use]

Cleaner Shrimp could have been picking at it if there was something in it that it wanted.

 

[jstack]

Cleaner Shrimp could have been picking at it if there was something in it that it wanted.

good thinking I caught my fire shrimp mugging my yumas one night. Bottom line feed the shrimpxD

 

[Dogshowgrl]

Mine does this on occasion. It completely deflates. Give it a few days, don't move it. Yes, someone is most likely bothering it, but the skeleton showing does not mean it is torn. See if you can find something bothering it, but it should bounce back just fine.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Mine does that almost as soon as the lights get dim. Almost every night. I'd leave it alone for another day or two and see what happens.

 

[snorvich]

Mine does this on occasion. It completely deflates. Give it a few days, don't move it. Yes, someone is most likely bothering it, but the skeleton showing does not mean it is torn. See if you can find something bothering it, but it should bounce back just fine.

What she said.

 

[cloak]

Check this out.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2010/4/corals

HTH.

 

[NedFlounders]

Thanks for the responses everyone, but it's definitely been injured...it's more than just deflated. Good news is it will survive. I've been out of town for a few days and when I came back home, it had already started some new growth. So what could the possible culprits be that live in my tank?

Cleaner shrimp?
Peppermint shrimp?
Red leg hermits or blue leg hermits?

 

[username in use]

Hard to say. Ultimately it could be any of the above or an as yet to be identified secret stowaway in the tank.

Maybe some night time viewing with a red light.

 

[cloak]

My guess would be the Peppermint shrimp. That would be quite the task for the hermits to pull off IMO and the Cleaner shrimp just doesn't have a reputation for picking on corals.