Just lost 2 heads of my Duncan

[attiland]

Hi all,

I have this Duncan for almost 6 months and was happy as can be. It even grew in size. I haven’t noticed any changes until today evening. I have 2 head missing all of the sudden without warning. I mean yesterday had all the 5 heads and today I have one completely missing an one seems like been ripped of and hanging on just about but I don’t have much hope.
I have found about a month ago a 25-30 cm long bristle worm - at least that was my own ID of the beast but I can’t think of anything else capable of ripping a coral head of its skeleton.
the picture that’s been take just before the lights go off so the retraction of the head is normal.
Do you know if a bristle worm of look alike could do this?
There was no changes in lighting or water parameters in the last few days.
I guess that head can not be saved?!

 

[mdb_talon]

I am certain a bristleworm did not do it, but cant say what did. I would assume it was stressed by water conditions or possibly disease and "bailed out" in search of greener pastures. You say nothing has changed in a few days, but i would not limit the timeframe so much. This could be stress that occured over weeks or months if parameters out of line.

 

[Shirak]

Can’t tell anything from your picture. Need closer with focus under white light.
I would take a look at night with a flashlight and look for possible suspects. I would also not rule out some sort of polyp bailout. Is there much flesh all around the outside of the skeleton? A healthy Duncan will be covered in flesh all around the outside of the stem.

 

[attiland]

I am certain a bristleworm did not do it, but cant say what did. I would assume it was stressed by water conditions or possibly disease and "bailed out" in search of greener pastures. You say nothing has changed in a few days, but i would not limit the timeframe so much. This could be stress that occured over weeks or months if parameters out of line.

The odd thing is. That day before yesterday I had a chance to admire it and it was fully open and happy.
if I look longer term back in time flow changes slightly but I actually 2 weeks ago but actually think it was less for that spot so I am struggling to think it is the reason.

 

[attiland]

Can’t tell anything from your picture. Need closer with focus under white light.
I would take a look at night with a flashlight and look for possible suspects. I would also not rule out some sort of polyp bailout. Is there much flesh all around the outside of the skeleton? A healthy Duncan will be covered in flesh all around the outside of the stem.

I will have to wait till the morning for new pictures. From the top of my head the heads curled on the edges and covered the skeleton. What is odd it was looking good just before it happened.

 

[attiland]

Do you think I can save the head still having on with some tissue? I am thinking of glue the rim to fix it in position

 

[Shirak]

Do you think I can save the head still having on with some tissue? I am thinking of glue the rim to fix it in position

Not much you can do there other than watch the flow speed and direction. Glue won’t stick to most corals as the are pretty slimy

changing things like location and flow may not be the best for it if the other heads are fine.

 

[Shirak]

I will have to wait till the morning for new pictures. From the top of my head the heads curled on the edges and covered the skeleton. What is odd it was looking good just before it happened.

What do you have for other inhabitants? Fish, crabs, shrimps?

 

[Shirak]

You mention no changes in parameters but what are they?

 

[attiland]

What do you have for other inhabitants? Fish, crabs, shrimps?

Scopas Tang, 2 Damsels. 2 Clowns, 1 Yellow wrasse - I don't think any of them would do this
few snails (trocus/nassarius) 4 hermits (scarlet)

 

[attiland]

You mention no changes in parameters but what are they?

Alk 7.5 dkh Hanna
Phos. 0.39 Hanna
PH: 8.1 Hanna Pen
Nitrate: haven't checked today simply I didn't have time it is around 5

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

That torch is pretty close. I have had a bailout recently due to a sting. Sometimes they bounce back but other times they do not.

 

[attiland]

Not much you can do there other than watch the flow speed and direction. Glue won’t stick to most corals as the are pretty slimy

changing things like location and flow may not be the best for it if the other heads are fine.

the head still hanging is still alive I will attempt to glue it at night - nothing to loose

 

[attiland]

That torch is pretty close. I have had a bailout recently due to a sting. Sometimes they bounce back but other times they do not.

I have no torch - there is a hammer about 20cm away, the other one is a Duncan too but different type

 

[attiland]

Some pics from today
One is from just after the light came on but it gave me the opportunity to do a pic without other heads covering it. The blue one is at about 10am not in peak lighting yet

 

[Shirak]

Some pics from today
One is from just after the light came on but it gave me the opportunity to do a pic without other heads covering it. The blue one is at about 10am not in peak lighting yet

Can't really see the outside of the skeleton which should be almost completely covered with flesh. The polyp looks pretty intact so I am going with some sort of bailout. If it was a critter or a hungry hermit it would be torn up and in pieces. The other one probably bailed too and is just somewhere out of view in the rocks or something. Your phosphates are quite high. They can interfere with calcification which could cause a bailout over time. Really should be .1ppm or below. Shoot for .05 but don't go dropping it super fast either. Might consider raising your Alk a bit. 7.5 is NSW level but I prefer to go 8-9 to help with pH stability and calcification.

 

[zachcre06]

I had Duncan's do this to me along time ago turns out that I metal in the water from a hose clamp I over looked get a poly filter and itll tell you whats going on in your tank I hope this helps. when the polyps bail it means something is very wrong in your system how often are you doing water changes and where are you getting your water from? i attached a link to a poly filter below. also are you having any problems with any other corals?


https://www.marinedepot.com/poly-filter

 

[attiland]

I had Duncan's do this to me along time ago turns out that I metal in the water from a hose clamp I over looked get a poly filter and itll tell you whats going on in your tank I hope this helps. when the polyps bail it means something is very wrong in your system how often are you doing water changes and where are you getting your water from? i attached a link to a poly filter below. also are you having any problems with any other corals?


https://www.marinedepot.com/poly-filter

did you work out the source? and what metal it was?

All other corals are happy, having said that recently I have bought 4 frags only one survived but I thought that might something to do with lighting to strong.. (maze and war corals)

 

[zachcre06]

It was in my early reefing days what I was doing was buying fish from the store that were in fowlr tanks. when I would get home I would float the bag then dump the fish in with the water they came with. turns out the LFS was using copper medication in the fowler systems to help keep the fish healthy. the poly filter showed me I had copper in the water. I also had a stainless steel hose clamp that was getting splashed I don't know if it was part of the problem but it got replaced with a plastic one.

with the lighting I always thought that you had to blast the corals but I am currently running three Chinese black boxes (vipar spectras) on a 180 gallon tank. the lights are 18" from the surface and the tank is 2ft tall. I run the blues at 25% for 10hrs. I run the whites at 1% for one hour. if you go to jason foxs website under the videos he gives you a tour of his tanks and he talks about lighting he runs and he explains that most corals live on underwater mountains and don't receive direct light all day and they are also deep that most of the other light spectrums get filtered out by the water anyways

 

[zachcre06]

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