My bubble is in trouble

[dhof]

2.5 months ago, I bought this beautiful bubble coral from a Frag show. Looked absolutely amazing the entire time. Here's a pick from a few days ago:

Yesterday it looked a bit hungry, so I gave it some reef roids (normally I feed it frozen shrimp or squid). Today I came home to this:

!!!!!!!!! Anyway, I picked it up to inspect things, and I found what I think is a miniature brittle star on the tissue of the bubble, so I plucked it off. Researching, these baby brittle stars don't look like they are bad players, so I'm wondering if the brittle star could have caused this?

My parameters are all in great shape, very solid and stable (measure every day). Nothing has changed in 2 months on my tank.

PLEASE ANY THOUGHTS OR ADVICE?

 

[Rudyg308]

Mine used to do that every once in a while, they bounce back in a day or 2

 

[dhof]

Mine used to do that every once in a while, they bounce back in a day or 2

I really hope you are right, Rudyg, that it bounces back. It's totally weird to see this happen over less than 24 hrs.

I did test all my levels again tonight, and found that the phosphate is high (reads blinking 200 on Hanna ULR). I just removed GFO on Sunday so this is a little hard to believe, but I setup some new GFO right away.

One good thing (I think) is that with the bubble so retracted, I noticed something else new on the side of the skeleton. Looks like a new bubble growth down there. I thought bubbles split but what else could this be? Sure looks like a tiny new bubble...

 

[BoBoBREWSKI]

Update?

 

[mta_morrow]

The brittle star is harmless and a great member of your CUC.

My bubble does that every so often as well.

Freaked me out the first time I saw it too.

It should be fine.

Ensure it is in a very low flow area and low or shaded lighting during acclimation.

 

[dhof]

The brittle star is harmless and a great member of your CUC.

My bubble does that every so often as well.

Freaked me out the first time I saw it too.

It should be fine.

Ensure it is in a very low flow area and low or shaded lighting during acclimation.

Great to hear that it might not be a lost cause. Thanks for sharing your positive experience. It's important because I'm losing hope quickly. ...

As an update, here is a picture from today. The bubbles on 3/4 of the coral have resumed almost normal appearance, but 2 sections of the bubble are still totally deflated. The mouth outside the skeleton of the bubble in that deflated section as well. I did place an acrylic baffle in the tank so the bubble is getting very little (almost none) flow at the moment. My hope is that it will repair whatever is wrong. It seems to be doing better recovering in the lower flow with the baffle, but I never really had all that much flow on it without the baffle to begin with. I'm still very worried as the deflated sections really look like it is struggling and it has nearly been a week by now. The deflated sections do not appear to be recovering at all. I really don't think the brittle star had anything to do with it

Any thoughts on whether I should try an iodine dip on it? My guess is there must be some tissue torn, but I only really see a single bubble in the deflated section with a small tear. Normally, if a bubble gets a small tear, the torn bubble retracts, but the head looks like normal and the bubble is healed overnight. I'm not sure what the heck is going on...

Maybe I'll have to rename this coral to "Salvador Dali - Bubble Coral 2018"....

 

[Jason mack]

I really hope you are right, Rudyg, that it bounces back. It's totally weird to see this happen over less than 24 hrs.

I did test all my levels again tonight, and found that the phosphate is high (reads blinking 200 on Hanna ULR). I just removed GFO on Sunday so this is a little hard to believe, but I setup some new GFO right away.

One good thing (I think) is that with the bubble so retracted, I noticed something else new on the side of the skeleton. Looks like a new bubble growth down there. I thought bubbles split but what else could this be? Sure looks like a tiny new bubble...

Just for your info .. a Hanna Ulr tops out at 200 .. which is 0.6

 

[Jason mack]

Great to hear that it might not be a lost cause. Thanks for sharing your positive experience. It's important because I'm losing hope quickly. ...

As an update, here is a picture from today. The bubbles on 3/4 of the coral have resumed almost normal appearance, but 2 sections of the bubble are still totally deflated. The mouth outside the skeleton of the bubble in that deflated section as well. I did place an acrylic baffle in the tank so the bubble is getting very little (almost none) flow at the moment. My hope is that it will repair whatever is wrong. It seems to be doing better recovering in the lower flow with the baffle, but I never really had all that much flow on it without the baffle to begin with. I'm still very worried as the deflated sections really look like it is struggling and it has nearly been a week by now. The deflated sections do not appear to be recovering at all. I really don't think the brittle star had anything to do with it

Any thoughts on whether I should try an iodine dip on it? My guess is there must be some tissue torn, but I only really see a single bubble in the deflated section with a small tear. Normally, if a bubble gets a small tear, the torn bubble retracts, but the head looks like normal and the bubble is healed overnight. I'm not sure what the heck is going on...

Maybe I'll have to rename this coral to "Salvador Dali - Bubble Coral 2018"....

Mine got stung once .,, also looked similar too that but it bounced back no problems .. just keep feeding it mysis or Artemia

 

[mta_morrow]

That looks much better! That’s good!

My experience with them is virtually no flow.

 

[mta_morrow]

My bubble was softball sized in my last tank. Sand bed in the front left corner with almost no flow.

Now I have a gyre in my new tank and I cannot get it back to its old glory as I virtually have no dead zones in this tank now.

Zoom in front left. Now it’s about a tennis ball size[emoji22]

 

[dhof]

Well it has been almost 2 months now, and the 2 sections in the front of the bubble coral that spontaneously 'drooped' have not really recovered. I'd say that the bubbles in the 'drooping sections' appear fully intact and occasionally a few of them even inflate, but those sections never get the mouth they are attached to back over the 'skeleton fins'. Here's an updated pic:

(above) - a picture from today. It's not the best angle to see the 2 'drooping sections', but you can see the impacted area on the left of the photo. The mouth of the bubble coral is on the outside of the "Skeleton fins" only in these 2 drooping sections. The rest of the bubble coral appears very healthy and the rest of the mouth section is on the inside of the 'skeleton fins'. It might be noteworthy that prior to this retraction event, the bubble had dozens of tentacles out every day and fed like crazy on food passing by. Since the retraction event 2 months ago, I have maybe only seen feeding tentacles once or twice, and only from one or 2 bubbles at a time.

(above) - a picture from a while ago which shows the mouth of the bubble on the outside of the 'skeleton fins' in the drooping sections.

QUESTIONS:

1. Should I just leave it be and hope the bubble eventually recovers those drooping sections on it's own someday?
2. I've been contemplating using a blunt surgical tool to try to manually help the mouth in the drooping section back over the "skeleton fins". Man I hope this doesn't sound crazy to some of the aquarists who are more 'in the know' than I am....
   1. I don't really want to cause harm to the coral by manually pulling the mouth back up, but as you can see in the topmost picture (the most recent one), two or 3 of the top parts of the skeletal fins have some retraction, and algae is forming on them.
   2. The mouth tissue in the 'drooping sections' on the outside of the 'skeleton fins' seems to be perfectly intact and healthy. Other than the bubbles being deflated, they appear intact as well.
   3. I'm scared that leaving it alone without manual intervention might cause it harm because of the tissue retraction on the fins and the algae starting to form on them.

Looking for some advice please. Leave it be, or manually try to pull the mouth over the fins? Has anyone ever had any success from a manual intervention like I'm describing?