what happened to my coral

[Bergovoy]

HEY!!!

In less then one day, I lost a quarter of my A. tenuis colony. About a quarter of the branches are white!!!

I will try to get some pics tomorrow as the daugher has the camera again.

The only CLUE I can see, is that I saw a black and white damsel npping at the branch tips. I am going to figure out how to get that (and the other damsels out of the tank).

I should hav eknow better then to put them into my tank...

Damn, I am upset... My first colony has to succumb to a rogue fish.

Is he eating the little polyps???
<img src="http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s57/Bbergovoy/th_03-15-07020.jpg" border="0"/>

 

[KWoo008]

Check and see if you have a little crab hiding in there. Look for little, beady eyes...

 

[IsaaX]

What are your water parameters?

 

[phatphisher]

i highly doubt your damsels caused the damage. i recall your tank as being fairly new so that may be the cause of your acro stn/ rtn. it is possible to keep acros in new tanks but you run a higher risk of losing a colony without obvious reasons.

 

[Bergovoy]

yes, there are a cople of crabs inthere. They came with teh colony, and I thought I asked about that and they said they were okay.

I have another birds nest that has a couple of crabs in there as well. They are pink redish crabs with big a s s claws.

What should I do. Is it too late to dip them. It that a fresh water dip or just a an iodine dip?

Yes the tank is relatively new, but the rock and sand is over a year and a half, and the mojority of the water during startup was my from my old tanks.

The tank never built up any nitrities, nitrates went up a bit during the first month becaus I moved all the rock and sand, and i kept movingthe rock once a week trying to aquascape.

I would test before the move and after and notice a 25-50 spike after each aquascape.

I did test water last night and all was good, nitrates were less then 10, with the olnly significant change was the calcium. for the first time, my calcium dropped. From the over 500 to less then 450.

The calcium is finally geting used.

I never had any algae build up at all.

All my frags seemed to be doing very well that is why I risked the small colonies that I got, the A tenuis, and the recent pink birdsnest.

The white out in the A tenuis is just on one edge, not random thoughout.

Ugghhh

 

[IsaaX]

What was the ALK?

 

[gcarroll]

If you are keeping SPS, you should be testing for ALK, it is far more important to the corals health than Calcium. I have not bought a Calcium test kit in 3 years. I find the reading worthless in determining why a corals health is declining. 450 on calcium is still high. The difference from 450 - 500 is just how much more frequent cleaning of the pumps you need to do.

 

[Bergovoy]

I tested the ALK and it was a bit low, and I will do another water change shortly, but I just did one about a week ago, (maybe ten days, as it was done twwo weekends ago.)

The A tenuis is whitening out from one side to the other, like something affected it on one side only...

if it was a params issue, I would think I would see issues all over, not localized like this is.

(I hope to get some pics up soon)

bill

 

[GTR]

If it's one sided it could be anything. That side might just be showing more stress and showing it first. Remember these are colonial animals and they share/spread the good things as well as the bad. My guess since it's one sided that the issue is flow or light related but it could just be failing from the treatment it recieved before it reached your tank.
New tanks are hard on SPS for reasons I don't think we fully understand other than the stability that comes with age.

SteveU

 

[Bergovoy]

I relocated the animnal afer I noticed the problem, and he is now perched up high and has as much flow as the sequence DART can throw at it.

That damn damsel is still picking at the PE of the white side, (is it officially dead if it is white???)

And no there is little to no PE on that side, but that damsel is still there going at it.

On a slight positive note, the Mama clown that I have was caught playing with the blue tangas they would nose dive into the GSP one right after the other, like taking turns on the slip and slide.
\

Almost reminded me of finding nemo with Marlin and Dori playing together...

(Yes I am struggling to find something positive today, betweem the A tenuis issue, I am having a bunch of back pain. My epidural has been approved and is scheduled for next friday, (not this friday). please let the pain go away...

 

[Bergovoy]

a tenuis is DEAD

a tenuis is DEAD

I guess when the say RTN is RAPID, I guess they mean it.

two days and gone...from full color to WHITE in two days.

I did not notice til tonight how much of hte base was gone. I cut off about a half dozen pieces / tips, but I think it is too late.

I am sorry and ask foregiveness for my impatience. I beg that I may learn my lesson an not buy nor accept any more live animals that may be sensitive to a quaility of water that I as of yet do not have.

I will nurture what I have and continue to strive for a clean and stable environment iin anticipation of another attempt maybe in a year from now.

Until then I will continue to read and learn from those that do post here, and hopefully your lessons will be my lessons albiet through vicariously

Bill

 

[GTR]

Bill, it's tough to really know why a coral does this. Could have been it wouldn't make it in a 5 year old system regardless of it's stability.

I can tell you though that I had my system at home in the garage. My wife wanted her garage back for the car and without the salt air.
I moved the system all to my shop, some old tanks where used, some new. All the LR was from the old system. It took me about two weeks to move everything. I'd load a couple buckets full of corals and some extra water. Filled the sump and as I added the corals I'd fill one tank at a time. About 80% of the water was old water.

Still with all the care I took in the move I had troubles with corals I'd had for years. It's been two years since I moved everything and I just now feel good about how things look and how the corals are responding. I've been scratching my head for two years and I've been keeping SW tanks for over 20 years

I can't say why but for some reason time just helps.









But I must stay in character so I'll post this to lighten the mood.

:lol:

SteveU