[LittleDevil]

I bought a green/red brain coral in July sometime and I have noticed that some of the skeleton is showing on one side. About 1/4" of it.
What whould be the best thing to do for the animal????
Thanks,
MAtt

[zhenya]

Hi Matt,
Where in your tank is it placed?Is it on rockwork or sand?What type of lighting you have and all your parameters?
One more thing,did you buy it in this condition or it developed in your tank?I have my Trachyphyllia coral on the sandbed and with less light and moderate flow. I would definately check if fish is niping on it or something else.Since you did not provide your water prams I'm assuming they check out ok,hence my guess at maybe predation.

[LittleDevil]

Thanks for the reply zhenya....

When I bought the brain it looked really healthy. Actually it still looks good, other than the skeleton that it showing.
As far as placement, the coral is at the bottom of the tank, medium current.
P.h 8.0
temp79
cal. 350-400
alk. 10
Everything else in the tank is doing very well. I have several other corals and a flame angel,purpletang, two clowns(who play in the brain), and a cleaner shrimp. I have never seen the angel or the tang mess with the brain.
I have 2 250 watt haildes 2 actinic 40 watts, 150 gallon tank.

The place where I bought it said that I should not have to feed it?? is that true?
Should I be feeding it? if so how often, how much, and what do I feed it?
Thanks
Matt

[zhenya]

Hi Matt ,
I don't know why your LFS said that you should not feed it.Look at night (or when lights are out) and if you see feeding tentacles out,try feeding it some finely choped seefood items,somy mysid shrimp may work as well.I usualy feed mine with home made food,I got recepie from reding Eric Borneman's book,just run through your seefood department in a supermarket and buy some fresh shrimp,scalop,squid,some clams and fish.bring it home and pulse it in a blender,add some nori algae,some selcon maybe and water.Put your mixture in a ziplock bags and lay it flat in a freezer.When you need some,just brake a piece off and put it in some water for quick defrosting,strain and woila,you got some chow for your corals and fish.I also add golden pearls to it and decapsulated brine shrimp eggs.I'm sure you can see a mouth or two on your coral,I feed anything that has a mouth and phytoplankton for the feelter feedersForgot to add that you should experiment with ammount of food.Give it small ammount with a turkey baster(when you see a feeders come out).I feed mine twice a week but once a week should be fine I think.Some people never feed their corals for fear of water quality issues,but IMHO you have to feed your animals for them to grow and not just survive and then do whatever you have to do to maintain quality of water.Set up refugium,skimmer and many other thing that can be done.
Sorry for long post I do tend to bable on and on

[chin_monster]

I would regard the flame angel as a prime suspect, many of them pick at brain corals. Had one that ate brain, anthelia and xenia. Clowns might have damaged it also FWIW. I think I'd try to fence it off or some such thing so the fish couldn't get at it until it recovers.

[kevinpo]

Angels are notorious for sneaking a bite or 2 from Trachyphyllia sp. IME you can have an angel with this coral for months to years without problems then for some reason they begin to nip at it. They can be quite secretive about it (the sneaky devils). Although unsightly a strawberry basket placed over the top of it will protect it until it recovers. Does the area where the skeleton is showing look like the coral is deflated and there are ribs showing through? Or is it a patch where the tissue is missing and the coral is still fully inflated. These corals have the ability to expand and contract enormously.

I ended up having to move mine to another tank when my juvenile P. navarchus started nipping at it. It has since fully recovered from a pretty serious wound. I will have had it 5 years in Jan. I feed mine 1/4 - 1/2 cube of formula1 every few weeks or so at night when the feeding tentacles are out.

HTH,
Kevin

[deano]

I have a metallic green version of this. I experiance some tissue loss when some Yellow Pylops started to grow into it. I moved the coral and it is doing fine except about 1/4 of its skeleton is showing on one side of it. The spot has never regrown but other than that it is doing just fine. I did nothing special for the coral other than move it to keep the pylops from doing more damage.

I will target feed mine with mysis shrimp, and other small meaty type fish foods.

This is not a great picture. But the green on on the left is the one I am talking about. Of course the damaged side is to the back. But as you can see it looks great from this side.

[LittleDevil]

Thanks for the reply's......

I have been looking the past few nights and I dont see any of the feeding tentacles ??? what should I be looking for? would they come out every night or just when it is hungry?

As far as the coral it seems to be healthy, it still opens and gets really big.

Thanks,
MAtt

[kevinpo]

Here's what they look like when they are looking for food. Normally about 2 hours after lights out.

HTH,
Kevin

[deano]

You will know when the feeding tenticals are out. They are unmistakable. You might try tempting it. Just before the lights come on or just after they go out. Thaw out some frozen mysis shrimp in some tank water. Get a food baster and lightly squirt the liquid around the coral, no need to sqiurt the whole shrimp if the tenticals are not out the coral will not feed until they are out. Give it a few minutes to see if it reacts. If it does then squrit the mysis shrimp (lightly) into the feeding tenticals. You might have to do this a few times, but you will eventually get a reaction. Both of my brain corals will react any time I feed the tank, even with flake food. Day or night! Their as bad as the fish wanting a hand out all the time.

[deano]

Kevin

That is an awesome picture. Like I said "unmistakable"

I would have to get a better digital camera to get that good of picture.

[zhenya]

Kevin,
Amaizing shot . I never taken pics of my Trachy feeding but I did take some of my Caulastrea and Plerogyra.It's same principal though

[zhenya]

and Plerogyra

[LittleDevil]

I have never seen anything like that before.... My brain has never done that.
I have my lights shut of around my bed time, So maybe thats why I have never seen them before??
Where do I buy the mysis shrimp ???? and should I try feeding the brain coral daily?
Sweet pictures.......


Thanks
Matt

[zhenya]

Hi Matt,
The mysid shrimp should be available in your LFS,just ask them .If not, maybe someone can point you to a place that sell it online,I never had to buy it online though.My lights set to go off at 9pm and I never go to bed before midnight so it's easy for me to do the feeding thing

[LittleDevil]

Well I am going to stay up late tonight and see if anyting happens... Would brine shrimp be ok???
I also have some formula 1, would that be good?
Thanks
Matt

[kevinpo]

Matt,
I feed Formula1 and raw shrimp. I cut the cube into quarters then thaw and feed one quarter to each mouth. The shrimp pieces are about the size of an eraser on a pencil. Once or twice a week is plenty to feed these corals.

HTH,
Kevin

[deano]

Matt

You asked if brine shrimp will be OK! and I don't think anyone answered.

Yes brine shrimp is ok to feed your fish and corals, but the mysid (sorry I always thought it was mysis) is agreed by most to have a better nutritional value than brine. Now if you soaked your brine in some Selcon (contains vitamins, lipids and fatty acids benifical to fish and corals) this would be better than just the brine by itself. Note: IMO Use these food boosters sparingly if you use to much they can foul your water and cause nusience algea growth.

Kevin made a good point of using raw uncooked shrimp to feed fish and corals. You can buy this and a lot of seafoods from your grocery store and in most cases alot cheaper than prepered fish foods from your LFS.

[LittleDevil]

I actually got to see some of the feeding tenticals, they didnt come out as far as the pictures.. I dont know if he ate any of the food or not...
I have some blastamusa next to the brain coral and it ate alot of the food.. Do they need to eat more often than the brain coral?

When the feeding tenticals are out, Does that mean they are hungry?

Thanks
Matt

[kevinpo]

Yes, if the tentacles are out it will feed. If you have no fish that nip the tentacles the coral will learn to extend them during the day like this one.

HTH,
Kevin