SPS Melting?

[joro]

I've had a beautiful ORA Green Birdsnest on a frag rack for the past week or so and my wife decided she was going to "clean the tank" tonight. She was using a turkey baster to spray off some algae (which I believe to be Cyano) and basically when she sprayed the Birdsnest the polyps completely shed off, leaving just a bare stick in areas where she sprayed. Does this mean the coral was dying already or is there something else to consider?

It's worth noting that the polyps seemed to be fully extending each day - we also did supplemental feedings with Marine Snow / Reef Chili - so there were no signs of bleaching/discontent until the turkey baster came along.

 

[Anthony Wood]

She probably just irratated the birdsnest enough that it retracted its polyp's from the sounds of it. If it's completely white it's skeleton which is a dead part. If your parameters or in check then I wouldn't worry about it. It'll eventually grow flesh back over the dead skeleton once it acclimates.

A picture of what your talking about would be much more helpful on our part to actually see what your seeing. In order to give better advice. Don't get mad at the wife she didn't do anything to harm the birds nest by simply hitting it with a stream of water from the turkey baster. If the flesh came off, that section was dead well prior to her turkey basting it.

Although birds nests are SPS put them in very low flow. If you put it in high flow like you would an Acropora your going to kill the birdsnest. The only time I've had good luck with birdsnest is putting them in a spot wih just about no flow but not a complete dead spot. The moment I put it into even moderate flow they started to die on me quick. I've even had them in super low flow but grow into moderate to high flow and that lead growing into that higher flow dies. So if that frag rack is moderate to high flow that may very well be your issue. Move it to a spot where there's super low flow and I bet you it'll stop dieing and take off in growth like a weed. This is assuming your parameters are stable and the water is low enough in phosphates and nitrates to support a birdsnest.

 

[joro]

She probably just irratated the birdsnest enough that it retracted its polyp's from the sounds of it. If it's completely white it's skeleton which is a dead part. If your parameters or in check then I wouldn't worry about it. It'll eventually grow flesh back over the dead skeleton once it acclimates.

A picture of what your talking about would be much more helpful on our part to actually see what your seeing. In order to give better advice. Don't get mad at the wife she didn't do anything to harm the birds nest by simply hitting it with a stream of water from the turkey baster. If the flesh came off, that section was dead well prior to her turkey basting it.

Although birds nests are SPS put them in very low flow. If you put it in high flow like you would an Acropora your going to kill the birdsnest. The only time I've had good luck with birdsnest is putting them in a spot wih just about no flow but not a complete dead spot. The moment I put it into even moderate flow they started to die on me quick. I've even had them in super low flow but grow into moderate to high flow and that lead growing into that higher flow dies. So if that frag rack is moderate to high flow that may very well be your issue. Move it to a spot where there's super low flow and I bet you it'll stop dieing and take off in growth like a weed. This is assuming your parameters are stable and the water is low enough in phosphates and nitrates to support a birdsnest.

Appreciate the info @Anthony Wood. I checked them this evening and now they are completely bare Should I just chuck the frag or is there any chance it may come back?