Green Slimer dead?

[Sdoutreefer]

I have a small frag of Green Slimer that was doing absolutely great. That was until about a month ago. The piece is now 98% brown, except one little polyp at the top. You can barely see the green polyp its so small. I think a crab decided SPS polyps were a good meal. The crab, who i believe is/was the suspect, was a hairy hitchiker. Im so lucky the crab came out of hiding one day while feeding. I tried using tweezers to pull him out, but accidentally stabbed the poor fella in the top of his head. The crab ran and hid, but had a good sized hole in his head. So Im thinking its dead.

Anyways, back to what I was going to ask. Will the green slimer pull off a miracle and return to good health? Or should I just pull it off the rock so I can make room for something else? I dont think it had something to do with my water parameters because all other SPS were and are still very happy.

 

[jedimasterben]

Pics?

 

[bucksfan1976]

Brown does not equal dead. white skeletal is what is dead, normally when your nitrates or something in the water is not correct acros will brown out. I would do a good water change and test the water. Be advised it can take weeks for it to appear normal if not months.

 

[Sdoutreefer]

Not all of it is brown. Theres one dot of green, and then at the base where it is encrusting is white, and the rest of it brown. Like I said in my first post, I dont think its my water. All other SPS are doing great. If it were my water, wouldnt the others be browning out too? Oh and it has little (more like none) polyp extension. I will try and get a picture today once the lights come on.

 

[bucksfan1976]

do you have any dip like coral revive? I would dip the coral just to be safe, I have a acro that was 6 inches tall the 1st 2 inches died but the rest was thriving.

 

[Sdoutreefer]

I dont have any revive, but might be able to get a hold of some. Its mounted to a rock tho. Id hate it to break when trying to pull it off

 

[Isoprene]

+1 to the above, something is up, its either your parameters or where the coral is positioned in relation to the lighting. I have a green slimer frag that brown/tanned out on me the entire time I had it (4 months now) and it just now looks super green and brilliant. I just added optics to my setup which provided more light as well as got my Mg back in line. I am by no means experienced but it seems to me especially with the acros, every frag / colony is different, they all like something just a little different and sometimes things just plain die, to no fault of your own. thats just my opinion though

 

[bucksfan1976]

One thing to always remember when it comes to SPS

1. They LOVE light stronger the better
2. They love flow but not direct flow. That can cause the tissue to fall off.

I would though recommend always having a bottle of revive on hand .. Better to be safe then sorry.

 

[Sdoutreefer]

Hahaha you guys arent tellin me what I want to hear! Youre supposed to say it was the crab!

My dkh/calc/mg are all in check. Well my calc needs to come up a little but is in an acceptable range (380ppm-ish) Im relatively new to SPS so I need all the info and criticism I can get. It was in some really strong flow, which may have caused it, but its been in the same spot since day 1, well more like day 83, and out of no where started to look bad one morning. And it was the only piece in bad condition. Im not cancelling out the fact it could be in too much flow, but I do have a vortech and those babys pump out some serious current as you all know. There is another acro in practically the same current path as the slimer and its very happy. I have enough light. My tanks lit with a radion at peak power of 75%.

If it was my water, wouldnt it effect the others?

 

[bucksfan1976]

depends on what tank they came from if they came from a tank with low calc that could explain why some of it is ok.

 

[Isoprene]

Have you had an alkalinity swing at all? This can cause the more sensitive corals to start showing sings of stress before the more established colonies. Usually though that means base recession not browning. I have noticed through some frags that brown means one of two things, lack of light, parameters off. A crab wouldn't cause it to brown if the tank conditions were ideal for the coral, it would just look like it has snips taken out of it where the crab snipped it. They will be obvious white scratches or branches cut off and have exposed coral skeleton. I think its a matter of your coral not liking something in your water or the light arrangement. Also Bucks is right, can depend on where it came from, even if it looked healthy in the beginning it can take some frags months to go brown. Have you measured your PAR where the slimer sits? Thats going to tell you if you have enough light there. I didnt read your other post, if you have white where it is encrusting then it has started to receed, at least thats what it sounds like.

 

[Sdoutreefer]

Im not sure if i had an alk swing or not when this all started. I didnt mention this earlier and I should have but It did come with 2 other frags from the same colony, and those two RTN in a matter of a couple days in my tank. But the 3rd one was still healthy. Im sure something was up with my alk making the others RTN. Just seems strange to me that it is the only one in the tank not doing well. It was establishing itself faster than the other frags I have.

As Ive said a couple times, all other corals are thriving. I go out of town every week for work and come home on the weekenda and I cant believe how much they have grown. Thats another thing not making sense to me as to why its only the slimer.

Its placed in one of the brightest parts of the tank. I started a monti in the sand bed, and it grew there the two weeks it was there. The slimer is at the top of the rocks.

Losing the slimer isnt a huge deal to me. Ive had my fair share of losing corals haha but it just seems strange to me that it was the only one effected by something. I understand all corals react differently and all that but still Id like to know what I did. Itll most likely be hard to pin a definitive answer onto why it did because it happened so long ago.

The only part receeding is the bottom left of the base of it, and its stayed that way for at least a week.