New torch lost 1 head, should I be concerned?

BantyRooster97 · Apr 5, 2017

So I bought a bi-color torch over the weekend and it had 7 heads. I acclimated & dipped it & it seemed fine. Today I get to work & it has lost 1 head. Should I cut that branch off just in case it is diseased or has a pest I missed? The other heads all seem fine. I also have a 3 head aussie gold, a hammer & 2 frogspawn & they all seem fine.

reef-rc · Apr 5, 2017

may best to wait and see. it's a normal behavior for torch to retract. Eventually they'll open. I got a torch a week or so ago and dipped a little too long it seemed and the torch retracted for days before opening back up. in short...best to wait and see before you may end up removing a good coral.

cloak · Apr 5, 2017

Is there any tissue left on the skeleton or is it completely bare? If it's the latter you might want to research Polyp Bailout. In most cases this is usually caused by a spike in the parameters, (stress) but some people believe that it might be a form of reproduction too.

BantyRooster97 · Apr 5, 2017

looks like all tissue is gone

Tyson · Apr 5, 2017

Last summer I bought my first torch and it had 4 nice heads on it. One of the heads started retracting more than the others until finally it lost all tissue. After that one was gone a 2nd head started acting the same way and slowly lost all the tissue. I was hesitant to touch it, thinking that after a few days the head would start to extend again, but it never happened. It took me until the 3rd head started acting up to work up the guts to frag the 3rd questionable head off to save the last one. Once I cut the retracted head off, the 4th head has been fine and fully extended ever since. I'm thinking my issue may have been brown jelly disease. I guess I'd just watch it close, if another head starts acting the same way I'd clip both off. I wish I took action a little quicker with mine.

Best Fish-Jake · Apr 5, 2017

If all the tissue is gone, frag off as much of its branch as you can without damaging the integrity of the other heads.

ReefNo0ob · Apr 5, 2017

BantyRooster97 said:
So I bought a bi-color torch over the weekend and it had 7 heads. I acclimated & dipped it & it seemed fine. Today I get to work & it has lost 1 head. Should I cut that branch off just in case it is diseased or has a pest I missed? The other heads all seem fine. I also have a 3 head aussie gold, a hammer & 2 frogspawn & they all seem fine.

I have a torch coral that lost a head as well. Once all the tentacles were withered away I used a turkey baster to suck all the dead tissue out of the skeleton and it didn't affect my other torch head at all

BantyRooster97 · Apr 6, 2017

I'll do that this afternoon. I am going to move the bi-color and the Aussie gold to a lower flow area of the tank (gotta move some rocks and make such an area). I'm worried my 2 mp40's maybe adding too much flow, even though they only get to 65% throughout the day.