help please

Aaronreef · Apr 19, 2020

I could do with some advice please.
I have been trying to catch a yellow clown goby for over a week, as it's been nipping my SPS, I don't have many as it is and I have even less now.
I have caught the little **** today.
I have birds nest that's took a bit of a beating.
It has brown algae growing on its skeleton from the lost polyp.
I'm going to dip the coral but wanted to ask if I should cut off the bits with algae on them ?
Any help would be great

blkhawk10 · Apr 19, 2020

I would just cut off the dead parts and not dip it, it's stressed out enough. As long as nothing else is messing with it, it should recover.

Graffiti Spot · Apr 19, 2020

Are you sure the clown goby is doing all that damage? It could be just picking stuff off the dead areas although I have heard of them messing with corals. That birdsnest looks really stressed and I wouldn’t dip it either. They really don’t have pests and they normally recover pretty well once the issues are corrected. Are there other sps in the tank that are doing fine?

Aaronreef · Apr 19, 2020

Ok I won't dip but remove the dead bits,
I've seen the goby nipping at it the only other fish I have are two clowns purple tang flasher wrasse banana wrasse fire fish.
I've lost a small acro frag that I also seen the goby enjoying.
I have got some Monti that are fine a red Digi that's fine and a forest fire that is fine
The goby hides out in the birds nest (well he did until today)
And comes out has a nibble goes back in

Aaronreef · Apr 19, 2020

Ok so I've just removed the coral to get the dead bits off and found vermetid snails on it. I have a lot of the things all over my tank at the moment they are grown like wild fire

bobby.w.hodges · Apr 19, 2020

Clown gobies are cute, but not in my tank. I had evicted a pair shortly after adding them for the same reason they eat polyps. Birds nest is a canary coral for me, it shows stress first and more intensely than other coral, I'd totally believe the goby did that. Don't dip as previously recommended, clip off the brown and let it be.

Aaronreef · Apr 19, 2020

I think it's dead to be honest,
It's skeleton is pure white and I've just removed it to get the brown bits off and a lot of its polyps have come off just from moving it through the water
Quite sad about it

blkhawk10 · Apr 19, 2020

It's not dead...Just let it do it's thing and don't mess with it anymore or move it if you don't have too. It's hard but corals love stability and part of that is leaving it alone.

Aaronreef · Apr 19, 2020

I hope not but just lately with the luck I'm having I wouldn't be surprised if it was,
I don't move it or anything else to be fair they all stay in one place.
Stability is ok I spent about a month trying to get my alk stable. It varied from 9.8 down to 9.2 I've now got it at 9.2-9.4 every time I check. I did wonder if I was dosing correctly to be honest as I dose 7ml 3 times at 01:00,02:00,03:00 and check the alk at 13:30 everyday.
My calcium doesn't seem to move from 460 my phosphate is 0.03 or below and nitrate at 5 or below salinity and water temperature are always the same 35ppt and 25°

Aaronreef · Apr 24, 2020

Unfortunately I really don't think it's alive, I've got polyps off the birds nest floating around the tank.
There's more algae growing on the skeleton I don't think it's live anymore

My main concern now is the polyps that are blowing around the tank, are they going to cause harm to anything? Should I be trying to scoop them out

Graffiti Spot · Apr 24, 2020

I would pull the coral to prevent any bad bacteria from getting to other corals if possible. Looks like it’s past any recovery. Maybe if there are any healthy spots you can save a frag but it doesn’t look good.