There’s no way age is causing that. Mine (merletti/cousin) are sixteen and adding polyps, not withdrawing, bcuz they’re fed well. they’re not going to start dying back in four years, they’ll still be getting fragged to make room
I think it wants more food directly delivered. The steady state it lives in isn’t enough to support its mass over time, you can tell the tank is kept in great condition, the ion balance is great or that coralline wouldn’t be so nice-There’s no tufty algae bearding the exposed septa, rather coralline spotting, indicating a long slow nitrogen negativity state, but in the presence of great water quality. These details remarks on your water quality and consistency
if you took time to spot feed each polyp once a day for six months, and handled the export required for that, this coral would add mass. The article referenced is absolutely not the final say. Two other clicks will show a 200 year brain coral in the caymans. 30 yrs is not the lifespan for any coral kept and adjusted to over time. That coral above lives on tank waftings for food, it’s not daily spot fed. Their article about natural corals, the risks they have in the wild, doesn’t apply to us.
You could take your normal days feed, without increasing, and shoot it into an inverted cup over that coral in the mornings to let it feed first, fully, so many ways to bring that back.
One other difference it would encounter in my pico is a kessil set to full blue. Running the white / 10k option specifically bleaches my blasto and my acans notably less color and whitening within two weeks.
I don’t like the look of full blue, it blue blasts the whole house I prefer the 10k but it bleaches my setup, so blue full on it is
not saying your other corals aren’t adapted fine to whites but that’s another difference I see in the pics, that would be all blue and fed daily in my restoration attempt.
You have a great and hungry specimen
