Trachyphyllia dying

Coralreefer89 · Mar 26, 2018

Hi all.

I have been having an issue with my trachy for a few weeks now. It started by inflating allot and getting slimy, then it shrunk back down. However it appears to have lost its feeding response and I am starting to see some exposed skeleton. Any help would be greatly appreciated, I would really like to save the little fella if possible??? First pic is just the trachy as it was, then there’s one of it inflated. Final pics show it now as it is with skeleton starting to expose and a piece of prawn it’s not eating. I have another thread in lps comments for more general tank info. Thanks again any help appreciated

Tahoe61 · Mar 26, 2018

Have you checked your chemistry?
Is the coral within reach of the Euphyllias sweeper tentacles?
Did you feed the coral when you saw a feeding response?
Is the coral over illuminated?

nautical_nathaniel · Mar 26, 2018

Definitely need some parameter values to move forward. How old is your tank, you have quite a few corals that look good in the first picture, are any of them acting the same way as the trachy?

Coralreefer89 · Mar 27, 2018

Thanks for the help. Unfortunately before I could get the dip the coral had started losing chunks of flesh and needed to be removed from the tank for the sake of the other fish and corals. However I have defs learnt for next time....dip early!

Tank parameters

Salinity 1.026
Alkalinity 8.0
Calcium 470
Nitrate 2
Phosphate .01
Magnesium 1600
Daily dose of nopox 2ml
Red Sea nutrition a/b 3ml each daily

Aqua one mini reef 120
Mariglo led lights
G216 pro skim skimmer

chowwil · Mar 27, 2018

Looks like the Trachy is too close to the torch coral from first pic.

Sea MunnKey · Mar 27, 2018

For now I would not physically touch or move the the Trachy around too much. The seemingly "exposed' skeleton looks fine as it reacting to feeding. I do not target feed my Lobophyllia meaty food but fish pellets blown on top of it when I feed my fish.

Yeah the very first 2 pictures ... you've got a Goniopora and a Torch colony and that would create a coral warfare ... for sure. Seems like you've moved them away from your Trachy ... yes?

Coralreefer89 · Mar 27, 2018

Sea MunnKey said:
For now I would not physically touch or move the the Trachy around too much. The seemingly "exposed' skeleton looks fine as it reacting to feeding. I do not target feed my Lobophyllia meaty food but fish pellets blown on top of it when I feed my fish.

Yeah the very first 2 pictures ... you've got a Goniopora and a Torch colony and that would create a coral warfare ... for sure. Seems like you've moved them away from your Trachy ... yes?

Yes that’s correct I moved them away from the trachy. However I think it was a bit of an amateur mistake as I didn’t realise my little Goni frag was perhaps as aggressive as I now know. Although I never saw any sweeper tentacles I suspect the trachy was possibly getting stung by elegance, Goni, or torch or any combination of. Unfortunately trachy has to be removed from the tank as it started loosing chunks of flesh and stopped all feeding response. It was a failure on my part of inaction when I thought it was normal, then either it got stung pretty much to death or I failed to dip the coral in time. Some valuable lessons have definitely been learnt for future coral care.