Holes in sick soft brain coral

Hi,

I have a sick brain coral that is confusing the heck out of me. I was out of town for two weeks and during that time the brain coral shrunk back to it's hard skeleton. Now, there is still color but holes are starting to develop in the skin. The odd part is the brain expands at night and looks like it is getting better. Then, during the day the skin shrinks and pulls tight. This is when the holes are evident and appear to be getting worse. Anyone have any ideas? I'm thinking of putting it in the dark for a while, but I don't know if soft brains can handle long periods of dark.

 

it just occurs to me that you might want to check it late at night and make sure nothing is snacking on it-

 

Can you post your tank specs and water parameters?

 

Thanks for the advice so far. I don't believe anything is snacking on it, but I'll setup the night camera tonight. As for my parameters:
SG - 1.024
NO3 - 0
POS - 0
CA - 420 PPM
ALK - 10.5
Temp - 78.0-78.4
The only thing I believe I may be lacking is light. It used to have much higher MH lighting. When I moved it into the new tank a few weeks back I needed to use lower wattage power compacts. But, everyone says this coral doesn't need much light, so I can't completely say this is the reason.

 

How many watts of pc do you have over what size tank? Also, how long has your tank been set up for?

PS. I'm guessing that we're talking about an open brain coral here?

 

Hello Again All,

Well, my Open brain coral appears to be coming back. The holes have sealed up and it expands at night. BUT, it shrinks back during the day. Does anyone know why it would expand in the dark but shrink in the light? This seems a little backwards to me. Thanks again to everyone.

 

They feed at night

 

Well I am no expert but with my brain coral it only swells when I put food on it, doesnt seem to matter day or night. Amcarrig sent me a pic last week of a brain coral that had all its tenticles out which mine has never done yet. I have been trying to get it to blossom out like that but it only seems to sprout out a little so far. Here is a pic of mine...

 

i think it depends on the open brain 1 of mine always have the tenticles out and the other one never does... it puffs up a lot when i feed it but shrink back when its done eating. maybe its still getting used to my tank been with me only bout 2 months.

 

You have a Trachyphyllia brain! You definitely don't want to keep it in the dark for an extendeed period of time as it will bleach and eventually die. Yes something may be eating it or possibly you have chemical warfare going on with neighboring corals...