open brain looking bad

[Wolfgang8810]

My green open brain is looking pretty bad. Some spots the flesh is just hanging off and the skeleton is exposed. It is on the bottom of mt 24 gallon aquapod with 64 watts of PC. I have a sunpod comming on wednesday 150 watt HM will this help with the tissue degeneration? I used my turkey baster to squirt it off to make sure there wasnt any sand on it and there was a little but nothing drastic.

thanks for the help

Mark

[zy112]

I think switching lights my stress it out more. I have had this happen to a green brain as well, mine ended up dying but I've had better luck with others. LPS can come back to life though so dont get to down. Sorry I'm pry not much help here

[revhtree]

Hey sorry to hear this.

First thing how is your water quality?

Also I would make sure it's getting decent flow, not allot, but enough to keep gunk from building up on it.

[Wolfgang8810]

ammonia0 nitrite 0 nitrate 10 ph 8.2 sal 1.025 temp 78-80

[Wolfgang8810]

Its Looking Even Worse Today About 1/3 Of The Skeleton Is Visable.

[BigAl07]

I don't know what's happening but it doesn't sound too good. Sometimes these things happen for reasons we don't understand. I think that's plenty of light for it. I Think anyway!!!

[Wolfgang8810]

should i jsut leave it alone and see if it recovers? or would i be jeopardizing the rest of the corals in my tank?

[dobejazz]

Originally Posted by Wolfgang8810

should i jsut leave it alone and see if it recovers? or would i be jeopardizing the rest of the corals in my tank?

It shouldnt' hurt anything if you leave it in the tank. i'd shade it as much as possible and see if that slows down the damage. In my experience green brains don't like alot of light

[JT101]

Wolfgang,

Your thread sounds EXACTLY like one I started a couple of days ago!

I shaded my green brain and it seems to be doing better. I have the same AP24 with the same 64W PC's like you do.

The only thing I do NOT understand is that the tank where I got this green brain had MH's, which are obviously a lot brighter than my measly PC's. However, for some reason my green brain seems to like MY tank while in the shade!

I am going to try to take it out a little at a time and see what happens.

In the meantime, keep an eye out on the skeleton. If it starts to get algae on it that means the brain will most likely never refill that section and it might be dying...sorry...

[Wolfgang8810]

im pretty sure its already a gonner. I had mine on the sand in the front corner and like you said the store i got mine had MH too but here i am 4 days later with a now white brain skeleton. Today the entire skeleton is exposed but there is a ridge where it is still pink. Big water change tomorrow. I also just recieved my Sunpod 150 watt MH so ill be picking up some screen( i do not have it set up on the tank yet.).

[stonedfish]

Sorry to hear about your coral. If mine is ever having a problem, I make sure the flow is cut off around him. If its blowing too hard it will rip the skin right off of it. From the looks of it its probably too far gone though.

[JT101]

Sorry for your loss. I believe that open brain is beyond return, too much skeleton is exposed. I would give a red/green one a try before you give up, brain corals are very beautiful and colorful.

Interesting, though...

I have been told that green open brains do better with low light levels, however, your situation and mine are almost the same. You and I both bought our brains from stores in which they were under MH's (which are supposedly too bright for them), took them home and put them under lower light. Your coral seems "gone", mine is "OK" but won't eat and only inflates at night and even then not so much...

What's up with this??? Maybe the species of brains we both got need metal halides???

[Wolfgang8810]

i jsut got my metal hailides today

[JT101]

I should probably clarify some things about my open brains:

My first trachy (a red/green) that I got last year was under MH's in the LFS and seemed fine there. When I brought it home, I put it near the top of my AP24, since I didn't know then that trachys liked low light. Well, of course, it was shriveled for days but eventually started to inflate. After a while I also learned that they can get torn on LR so that made me move it down to the sand. Eventually, it really puffed up and now it is my "pride and joy", it is so beautiful.

The second brain coral I got (a greenish/purple), I immediately put it on the sand. It withered away in a week or two. I don't recall for sure, but I don't think I EVER tried to move it UP towards the 64W PC's in my AP24.

Now, I have ANOTHER "fluoroscent" green brain. It is also looking bad. I did the same thing (i.e., put it on the sand, and even shaded it). Since that seems to not be working, I just today said " what the hell" and put it up near the top (on some LR) just like I did with my first red/green brain. Maybe (even though they like lower levels of light) I "shocked" the second and third ones too much by STARTING THEM OFF so low in a tank that already had MUCH less light than what they were living under in the LFS? I don't know, but I have nothing to lose at this point. Maybe the key was to acclimate them to lower levels gradually - not all in one fell swoop?

I will keep you posted. If it works, it will have been a learning experience for me. If it doesn't then it's another nice trachy down the drain...

[JT101]

I just wanted to note that after only ONE DAY of my latest "fluorescent" green trachy being placed very close to the top of my AP24 (and therefore very close to the relatively meager 64W PC's), it is ALREADY IMPROVING!! It is more inflated than it has been since I bought it. Granted, it lost about 10-15% of tissue (with exposed skeleton showing) but fortunately there is NO algae growing on it so I am hoping that the brain's tissue will grow back.

I know, it may be too early to tell, but I am pretty confident that this turned the trick on the downward spiral of this beautiful specimen.


If it heals up and eventually inflates as much as my original red/green brain, I will place it on the sand where it really belongs.

Keepin' my fingers crossed...