Baby Coral?

Virgs0608 · Mar 27, 2024

I found this guy just hanging on the sandbed. I wasn't sure what it was, so I gently put it up on a rock to get a better look.

It's small, about the size of a dime, smooth, and glowing a pale green. I was thinking maybe baby shroom, but it has an obvious mouth in the center and the only shroom I have is a toadstool (and a minute ricordea about 1/8th the size of this growing from a small piece left behind after cutting it away). Only other corals in the tank are candy cane, zoas, and cloves.

Pics taken without filter, yellow filter, and orange filter.

TIA!

Reefkeepers Archive · Mar 27, 2024

That's a bailed out candy cane head. Corals will bail out polyps as a last ditch effort to survive, usually under very stressful conditions. They can recover afterwards, but that is usually not the case. Are any of your candy canes looking unhappy? What are your parameters? If you'll look around you'll notice one of the candy canes is missing a head from its skeleton

Virgs0608 · Mar 27, 2024

Reefkeepers Archive said:
That's a bailed out candy cane head. Corals will bail out polyps as a last ditch effort to survive, usually under very stressful conditions. They can recover afterwards, but that is usually not the case. Are any of your candy canes looking unhappy? What are your parameters? If you'll look around you'll notice one of the candy canes is missing a head from its skeleton

Now that you say that, there was one head looking bad and I was considering cutting it off because I saw some skeleton on it this morning when I checked before work- the rest of the heads (maybe 6?) are fine.

I do have another post going, there is some crazy bacteria that popped up on the sandbed out of nowhere two days ago that I'm trying to get rid of, and corals have been angry for a few days.

I don't recall all of the numbers, they're posted on that thread, but only notable numbers were nitrites at 0.2 (which is the first time this tank has had nitrites in months), and phos at .15 but it's been in the .15- .2 range for weeks and I can't get it down, so not a swing or crazy jump. Ammo was zero, and everything else in line - I just don't have specific numbers handy right this second.

This tank is on the edge of crashing (I feel like), and I have two sick baby clowns in quarantine refusing to eat, and I'm ready to tear it all down and start again .

Virgs0608 · Mar 27, 2024

I just rechecked - all candy cane heads present and accounted for. Candy cane is also a neon yellow/green, and this is a purplish pink color now. It's also significantly bigger than the candy cane heads, and looks soft/squishy.

Honestly, it's the most healthy looking coral in my tank right now .

Reefkeepers Archive · Mar 27, 2024

Virgs0608 said:
I just rechecked - all candy cane heads present and accounted for. Candy cane is also a neon yellow/green, and this is a purplish pink color now. It's also significantly bigger than the candy cane heads, and looks soft/squishy.

Honestly, it's the most healthy looking coral in my tank right now .

Hmm, does it have a "foot" or is it free floating? As in is it attached to the rock in any way?

Virgs0608 · Mar 27, 2024

Reefkeepers Archive said:
Hmm, does it have a "foot" or is it free floating? As in is it attached to the rock in any way?

Free floating for the moment, it was drifting around the sandbed when I grabbed it to see what it was. I put it on the rock, and it started molding to it in minutes, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's attached in the morning.

I had an RFA that died maybe two weeks ago? But I pulled it from the tank when it started looking sick to make sure it didn't nuke the tank if it died while I was at work. It perked up and I thought it was turning around, and then it crashed on me maybe a week later. I stg that's where all of this started. That tank was *perfect* until I got that RFA.