brain coral

Had this brain coral for about 3 weeks now and it has progressivly been growing and becoming more colorful. Now about 3 days ago i noticed a slight decrese. So i figured something must have happened so i checked all my levels and calcium was 440 specific gravity was 1.025 and carbon hardness was 10. So i was a little confused on this and was gunna let it be. Then the next day it got a little worse so i took pics. Now it looks different and I cant tell if its repairing itself or getting worse still. So i uploaded some pics tell me what you guys think, thanks!

ps: pic0007 is yesterday and the other is today. The larger shot is so you can see the placement of the coral

 

Have you been feeding it? There is definite deterioration..but it isn't the end of the world. When it's tentacles are out like in the first picture try squirting some brine shrimp over it. Do this every couple days.

 

Nah, i havent fed it directly since ive had it but i feed the fish brine shrimp daily. What do you mean by squirting? Sorry haha kinda new to this but thank you

 

squirting with a turkey baster lol give it a shot and see how it does in the next week or so

 

you can feed it any meaty food cut up fine.
Squirt it gently

 

I feed mine broken pieces of krill now and again (month or so)


Do you have anything that could be hosting in it? I had some clowns that did, the brain tolerated it well for awhile, then one day it looked unhappy. I had to move the brain to another tank.


Good luck friend, beautiful brain btw!

 

Sometimes I find my cleaner shrimp on it. But I think he's just cleaning it up I can't see him doing much damage. But who knows. I'm starting to feed it brine shrimp, that okay? I'll post here again soon and let you know how it's doing. Thank you

 

Brain and all LPS go through spells where they expand and shrink. They do this during the day also. If it doesn't look like it is slimey or anything it is probably part of it's cycles. One key is to look for it's tentacles. If they are visible then all is good. Check to make sure you flow is not to great across it. That can pull the flesh from the skeleton and possibly kill it.

 

Keep an eye on nitrates and phosphates as well try and keep them as low as possible generally. Also make sure it's getting the right amount of light and water flow. Feeding definitely can help it get through rough periods I think.

 

The brain coral does show minor signs of tissue erosion/necrosis but it seems to be pretty minor. In the future if you notice necrotic tissue on an LPS Coral, you canuse airline tubing to siphon off the dead/necrotic tissue. If things don't seem to be getting better you can try a giving the coral a bath with an Iodine solution like TM Pro Coral Cure or similar product. The iodine will act as an antiseptic and hopefully kill prevent the spread of the tissue necrosis