Acan falling out of skeleton!

Reefready1 · Oct 13, 2016

Hello, I suddenly have the heads of my acan falling out of the skeleton. All parameters are normal for a frag tank. They are in a 30 gal "frag tank". Lighting is 4 bulb t5 and a reef bright blue strip. Temp is stable and auto top off installed. 10 gal water change every 2 or 3 weeks. I use red Sea products and feed reef roids and pemysis. Only a purple tank and 6 line wrasse in the tank for fish. They just ate 2 nights ago (Pemysis), there are blastos and torches in the tank also which look good as normal. The heads almost look over inflated. I am able to catch them floating around in the tank and put them in the mushroom basket in a different tank just because. Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated.

Reefapprentice · Oct 13, 2016

Pictures? Sounds like the flesh is floating off, which sounds like a goner, but hard to tell without pictures.

Reefready1 · Oct 14, 2016

Reefapprentice · Oct 14, 2016

Interesting. Looks like a extreme form of polyp bailout. Not sure what might be the cause, never seen this before. Does the entire polyp leave and a clean skeleton is left, or is there sill some flesh left when they pop off?

Tahoe61 · Oct 14, 2016

Polyp bail out is often associated stress, alkalinity swings or low levels, check all your chemistry.

Reefready1 · Oct 14, 2016

Totally clean, polyp would almost look like a mushroom that dropped off a baby. It's 2 days and the polyp in the picture is still alive. There are 3 polyps left in the skeleton and they look intact. I have a rainbow acan that lost 1 polyp also but the others look good. SO FAR!!!! I did dip them in poylp lab primer before moving them to another tank. No pest other than a couple small bristle worms.

djd3mon · Oct 19, 2016

hmmm. that is interesting. Ive never seen that before. Ive had a frogspawn melt on me exposing the skeleton but nothing like this. Hopefully someone can answer!

ChiCity · Oct 21, 2016

That's definitely bailout...
How long have you had the acans?
What's ph and alk?
Did you change around powerheads to where there's now more flow in the acans direction?

Salty1962 · Oct 21, 2016

What is your flow like?

RobBaglieri · Oct 21, 2016

I had that happen to my acans, torch and hammers all at the same time. Once they float off, they slowly wasted away. My issue was ultra high salinity. very sad.

ChiCity · Oct 22, 2016

Also, another thing you can do (also for fresh cut new arrivals) is cut a tube or cup, basically something that will sit around the frag to protect it for a week or so...
Sometimes, when the flesh starts coming apart from the skeleton this method will help if caught early and parameters, lighting and or flow ar brought back into order

Ben007 · Oct 23, 2016

Do u have any peppermint shrimp? They'll eat any meaty coral

revhtree · Oct 24, 2016

@CherryCorals or @All Delight may be able to shed some light!

Reefready1 · Oct 27, 2016

Update.
The polyps that are left seem in good health. they ate some pe mysis the other night like normal. The heads that fell off are still alive and have feelers out as if it would be feeding. They are in the mushroom basket.

Reefready1 · Oct 27, 2016

From the original problem. Calcium fell to 380 mag was 1200 alk 7. There are still acans in that tank that didnt have that reaction.
What it used to look like.

Reefready1 · Oct 27, 2016

Flow and lighting have been very consistent.

cjpitt80 · Nov 12, 2019

Reefready1 said:
Flow and lighting have been very consistent.

Any chance you ever figured out what happened? Anything survive/recover?

Tyler Bullock · Dec 7, 2019

I am going through this now, were you able to resolve this issue?

gotmesalty77 · Dec 25, 2019

Tyler Bullock said:
I am going through this now, were you able to resolve this issue?

I am as well currently. with the best looking rainbow acan ive ever seen. It's so sad that this absolutely incredible acan is bailing out. I've taken some unorthodox steps to try and save it, Or rather parts of it. Basically I put a little glue on one of the places that was bailing. I assumed that half was a goner anyway but I figured id try some extreme measures. That was earlier today. I much try and cut back the extremely jagged parts to see if that helps at all. I assume the worst. I have a thread where I have some pictures. I'd like to hear about your experience and thoughts and advice.

cjpitt80 · Jan 19, 2020

gotmesalty77 said:
I am as well currently. with the best looking rainbow acan ive ever seen. It's so sad that this absolutely incredible acan is bailing out. I've taken some unorthodox steps to try and save it, Or rather parts of it. Basically I put a little glue on one of the places that was bailing. I assumed that half was a goner anyway but I figured id try some extreme measures. That was earlier today. I much try and cut back the extremely jagged parts to see if that helps at all. I assume the worst. I have a thread where I have some pictures. I'd like to hear about your experience and thoughts and advice.

Were you able to save it?