Extremely fast tissue recession on favia

[living_tribunal]

I’ve had this dragon soul favia for about 2 months. He’s been in my qt frag tank for nearly this whole time and has done great.

Last week I added him to my display, after a day or so I noticed his tissue recessing.

After a day or so, the recession started happening at a much faster pace. I moved him to the bottom of the tank and in lower flow to see if that would help. The tissue continued to recess.

I now have him in shade, not sure what else I can do.

At the time I added him, my mag was a little low, around 1260. I didn’t dose mag until today to get it back up to 1320.

None of my other corals that were added from that qt group show any signs of stress, even another favia.

I have a hunch that the mag may have been the catalyst but it seems a bit intense, usually you see the slow and steady signs of mag deficiency.

As you can see, there is no bjd or other visible diseases.

Another odd thing, my amphipods are all gathering on his remaining polyp. They seem to be consumingsomething within his skeleton/polyp.

Any ideas on what could be causing this? Given the pace that this has occurred, I’m not

Params:
Alk-8.9
Calc-420
Mag-already told you
sg-1.026
Phosphate- .07

A picture of him in my frag qt and display right before/after he was added to display:

A picture of him now:

 

[DSC reef]

How different is the par, parameters and nutrients compared between the frag tank and display? The pods are most likely eating dead tissue.

 

[living_tribunal]

How different is the par, parameters and nutrients compared between the frag tank and display? The pods are most likely eating dead tissue.

They are nearly identical. The par is a tad higher in my display and he was placed in the middle of the tank so that might be it.

After noticing the initial recession after the first day, I moved him to the bottom. He’s continued to recess despite being in lower par than he was in the frag tank.

Phosphates are lower in the frag tank (fishless system, always a struggle to keep them up). I always keep my display N/P 15x and under with base phosphates at .03 minimum. Test it everyday.

I feed my corals quite heavily, I run an lps tank and they receive a few forms of nutrition every day.

He’s only been in direct shade for a few hours, so I may need to wait it out. I’m worried that he has some parasite/disease however and am considering moving him back to the frag tank to prevent my other corals from getting infected.

 

[DSC reef]

I don't think it's a disease. IME goniastrea frags are very hit and miss. Could even be from a change in flow.

 

[living_tribunal]

I dont think it's a disease. IME goniastrea frags are very hit and miss. Could even be from a change in flow.

He’s remained in very low flow in both tanks. The other favia is thriving in the very same spot as he was. I have a few other favias near that location that are also thriving.

I suppose moving him to direct shade and low/no flow should give me my answers over the next few day’s. I’ll pull him out if the remaining polyp gets much worse.

 

[Hermie]

I've had a favia (or goniastrea) go from what yours looks like to "excellent" now, but it took a lot of time and patience. I killed most of the original tissue accidentally in a QT but after time + feeding, it's recovered. But it did take about 6 months now to get to what I consider healthy from rock bottom.

original:

in June:

now (don't have any great photos):

it now has eyes + tentacles + mouths and it inflates regularly.

 

[Sabellafella]

Hey nice setup. That's pretty odd what's happening here, do you have any potential fish that could be picking on it? Corals close to it? Flesh still looks healthy except the recieded parts, definitely looks like something might be stinging or picking on it.

I’ve had this dragon soul favia for about 2 months. He’s been in my qt frag tank for nearly this whole time and has done great.

Last week I added him to my display, after a day or so I noticed his tissue recessing.

After a day or so, the recession started happening at a much faster pace. I moved him to the bottom of the tank and in lower flow to see if that would help. The tissue continued to recess.

I now have him in shade, not sure what else I can do.

At the time I added him, my mag was a little low, around 1260. I didn’t dose mag until today to get it back up to 1320.

None of my other corals that were added from that qt group show any signs of stress, even another favia.

I have a hunch that the mag may have been the catalyst but it seems a bit intense, usually you see the slow and steady signs of mag deficiency.

As you can see, there is no bjd or other visible diseases.

Another odd thing, my amphipods are all gathering on his remaining polyp. They seem to be consumingsomething within his skeleton/polyp.

Any ideas on what could be causing this? Given the pace that this has occurred, I’m not

Params:
Alk-8.9
Calc-420
Mag-already told you
sg-1.026
Phosphate- .07

A picture of him in my frag qt and display right before/after he was added to display:

A picture of him now:

 

[jace]

My thoughts are the placement... flow and intensity will be hard to determine and can both contribute but for something to have occurred that quick may be something irritating directly...if that’s not it and you feel conditions are relatively same then give it time. Do you have a par meter, that’s a thought to look into really ensure intensity is comparable and this isn’t an acclimation issue.

 

[Alvaro_Spain]

My goniastrea dragon soul gets massive during the day absorbing water and by late afternoon it retracts almost completely when it has already had 6-7 hours light.

 

[living_tribunal]

I've had a favia (or goniastrea) go from what yours looks like to "excellent" now, but it took a lot of time and patience. I killed most of the original tissue accidentally in a QT but after time + feeding, it's recovered. But it did take about 6 months now to get to what I consider healthy from rock bottom.

original:

in June:

now (don't have any great photos):

it now has eyes + tentacles + mouths and it inflates regularly.

I’m happy you were able to revive yours! I have several favias and never had any issues, this one took me by surprise.

Any idea what caused yours to go south? Trying to determine course of action.

 

[living_tribunal]

My thoughts are the placement... flow and intensity will be hard to determine and can both contribute but for something to have occurred that quick may be something irritating directly...if that’s not it and you feel conditions are relatively same then give it time. Do you have a par meter, that’s a thought to look into really ensure intensity is comparable and this isn’t an acclimation issue.

I don’t but there are two other favias in the middle of the tank and similar flow though had not experienced any issues.

I’m running wwc on my two hydra 26s at 85% intensity reduction while I try to acclimate a wilsoni I traded my sump for.

My gut tells me par but he continued to recess after moving to bottom of tank.

After moving to complete shade/no flow, he hasn’t recessed much yet so I’ll give him another 1-3 days.

This was an odd one!

 

[living_tribunal]

Hey nice setup. That's pretty odd what's happening here, do you have any potential fish that could be picking on it? Corals close to it? Flesh still looks healthy except the recieded parts, definitely looks like something might be stinging or picking on it.

No, only two clowns. The only coral they steal food from is my wilsoni. I have only fed the dragon soul twice with reef roids since adding to display. The clowns never bother with them.

His original location was a solid 6” away from any other corals as well so I don’t suspect any chemical warfare.

I’m starting to think this was a very odd reaction to par. There was no bleaching since my phosphate levels are on point but he still couldn’t tolerate the light so recessed. I’ll have to read some white papers on light sensitivity beyond phosphate deficiency. Can’t state anything conclusive but he seems to be doing better in full shade which is weird because he received moderate par in the frag tank.

 

[Hermie]

I’m happy you were able to revive yours! I have several favias and never had any issues, this one took me by surprise.

Any idea what caused yours to go south? Trying to determine course of action.

it was in a QT tank with a dying sinularia and it also endured some medication in the QT that may have damaged it (piperazine). It slowly recovered after I moved it to the display tank, so it was a water quality issue I believe, toxins specifically.

 

[living_tribunal]

So I think I’ve found the issue, and it’s quite bizarre. I know many will dismiss it but I’m watching it with my very own eyes.

The favia has gotten way worse despite being in full shade and no flow.

It has a few dozen amphipods on it at all times. I believe the amphipods were initially attracted to his dead tissue but are now consuming him entirely.

I moved him to my frag tank.

 

[nick0206]

Amphipods are scavengers, they have never seen or heard that they touch healthy coral.
I think if they attacked the Fabia, then there is already dead tissue that they eat, but you don’t see it.
Did not try to treat Lugol? Maybe an infection or some kind of parasite.
In my LFS, about 4 months ago there were several "dragon souls" for 150$. At night, euphylia fell on one of the frags and burned 50% of the coral. I took it for 30$. Frag size 5 "X 3". To date, it has recovered by 80%.

 

[Hermie]

definitely need to be doing iodine dips to ward off anything that eats coral tissue, from bacteria to scavengers

 

[living_tribunal]

Amphipods are scavengers, they have never seen or heard that they touch healthy coral.
I think if they attacked the Fabia, then there is already dead tissue that they eat, but you don’t see it.
Did not try to treat Lugol? Maybe an infection or some kind of parasite.
In my LFS, about 4 months ago there were several "dragon souls" for 150$. At night, euphylia fell on one of the frags and burned 50% of the coral. I took it for 30$. Frag size 5 "X 3". To date, it has recovered by 80%.

I have posted several pictures of amphipods smack dab in the middle of this goniastreas polyp. Others have reported the same in this thread.

I get it, sounds a little nuts but I watched them eating this guy alive. There’s no other way to account for this other than a parasite or the amphipods.

I moved him away from the amphipods and he hasn’t lost any more tissue. Coincidence?

 

[DSC reef]

I have posted several pictures of amphipods smack dab in the middle of this goniastreas polyp. Others have reported the same in this thread.

I get it, sounds a little nuts but I watched them eating this guy alive. There’s no other way to account for this other than a parasite or the amphipods.

I moved him away from the amphipods and he hasn’t lost any more tissue. Coincidence?

I've seen many threads reporting the same thing, eating zoas too. Definitely not a coincidence. Kinda like asterinas, some are a problem and others are. Glad you found the issue

 

[living_tribunal]

I've seen many threads reporting the same thing, eating zoas too. Definitely not a coincidence. Kinda like asterinas, some are a problem and others are. Glad you found the issue

I believe what caused this to happen was the coral potentially recessed initially from par shock, or one of the usual suspects.

My amphipod population has really gotten a little extreme, and they took to cleaning the dead tissue. Since goniastreas tissue is so thin, they probably just continued digging in the skeleton making the coral more stressed and recessing further.

 

[living_tribunal]

Interestingly enough, the other goniastrea I added is doing just fine. There are amphipods cleaning the edges and rock he is secured to but none directly on the polyp like they were the goniastrea in the picture.