War Paint Scoly detached from skeleton

[Sancho]

A few months ago my BTA stung my scoly. It lost the color on the side that was stung. It looked like shit for about a week then started to come back. A few weeks after it started to recover I found hermit crabs munching on it in the middle of the night. The hermits are gone now and the scoly has looked great for the last month or so. It eats, gets all puffy and regained some of the lost color. 4 days ago I found the scoly in the sand bed detached from its skeleton. Its not slimy, its still eating although its about half its regular size. Looked on the other forums and there are a few post on this with no outcome.

 

I dont think it will regrow its skeleton. Will it survive in the sand bed? Or should I try to get it to re attach to its former skeleton or should I treat it like a detached shroom?

 

JMB I know its technically not a scoly. But I have forgotten the nerd name you called them awhile back.

 

This is how it normally looks.

This is it after the nem stung it. You can see on the right the loss of color and shape. Also the top left was stung

 

I will try and get a pic in a bit of its current state.

 

 

[ReefWeeds]

This is interesting. Curious to see what responses you get. And love the statement nerd name.

[Sancho]

This is interesting. Curious to see what responses you get. And love the statement nerd name.

If I get any responses. I bet the first one will be what are your water parameters?

[GoingPostal]

Probably a goner, ideally it could grow a new skeleton, but that will take a long time and usually corals that bail out get sucked into powerheads, under rocks or just die before that happens. You'd have to rig up something to keep it in one place. I had a bubble coral I lost that way.

[RollaJase]

You still have a chance to save it as long as it is still attached to the skeleton. Move it to a low flow area, feed it daily and keep an eye out for algae on the exposed skeleton. 'Socket pop' is a similar affliction that is common to elegance corals, button corals (cynarina) and bubble corals and is usually caused by high phosphates/nitrates and trauma caused to the coral (including too much flow). I had a fungia coral recede half of its flesh due to a phosphate issue. Once the phosphates leveled out the receding ceased and over the last 12 months it has almost grown back over its skeleton to the original size. Just be very careful when handling the coral or cleaning the skeleton as it can be quite easy to peal the flesh from the skeleton entirely.

[Sancho]

Probably a goner, ideally it could grow a new skeleton, but that will take a long time and usually corals that bail out get sucked into powerheads, under rocks or just die before that happens. You'd have to rig up something to keep it in one place. I had a bubble coral I lost that way.

I rig stuff up all the time. Its feeding tentacles were out about 15 mins ago fed it a chunk of krill. Balled up like it always does and seems to be OK. Thinking about sticking it in my detached shroom tupperware container with its skeleton and some rubble rock. I have lost these guys in the past they usually slime, shrink to nothing or disintegrate from the mouth outward. I have never seen one bail from its skeleton.

[Sancho]

You still have a chance to save it as long as it is still attached to the skeleton. Move it to a low flow area, feed it daily and keep an eye out for algae on the exposed skeleton. 'Socket pop' is a similar affliction that is common to elegance corals, button corals (cynarina) and bubble corals and is usually caused by high phosphates/nitrates and trauma caused to the coral (including too much flow). I had a fungia coral recede half of its flesh due to a phosphate issue. Once the phosphates leveled out the receding ceased and over the last 12 months it has almost grown back over its skeleton to the original size. Just be very careful when handling the coral or cleaning the skeleton as it can be quite easy to peal the flesh from the skeleton entirely.

No it completely detached 4 days ago. Its always been in a low flow area. Aside from a bit of bubble algae, my tank is algae free. Phosphates are usually undetectable. Nothing else in tank is buggered. Its just the scoly that my nem tried to kill awhile ago....... You are gonna make me break out my test kit.

 

And yes I have good test kits. Salifert and Red Sea.

[HarryPotter]

No it completely detached 4 days ago. Its always been in a low flow area. Aside from a bit of bubble algae, my tank is algae free. Phosphates are usually undetectable. Nothing else in tank is buggered. Its just the scoly that my nem tried to kill awhile ago....... You are gonna make me break out my test kit.

 

And yes I have good test kits. Salifert and Red Sea.

 

Picture? Im curious what it looks like detached.

[RollaJase]

No it completely detached 4 days ago. Its always been in a low flow area. Aside from a bit of bubble algae, my tank is algae free. Phosphates are usually undetectable. Nothing else in tank is buggered. Its just the scoly that my nem tried to kill awhile ago....... You are gonna make me break out my test kit.

 

And yes I have good test kits. Salifert and Red Sea.

Ah that's a bummer, I didn't think it had fully detached yet . I have read a few cases of the coral re-attaching to the skeleton after bailing but it seems to be a very very rare occurrence. I was able to keep a Cynarina alive for about 6 months on a frag rack in my sump after it bailed, could never get it to re-attach though. It eventually shrivelled down to nothing.

 

I wouldn't bust out the test kit, it seems in your case that this was definitely trauma related, not environment related.

[Chris!]

Maybe you could ship it to someone

 

 

Seriously tho, I'd place it in the shroom bin with its original skeleton and hope it reattaches. That said I don't know that its 100% required to be attached either.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#### it just leave it be

[JavaJacketOC]

Don't throw the skeleton away, it could start new growth. Plate corals do that.

[Sancho]

I am gonna try to get it to go back to its skeleton. I think I will try to take some gauze down to one layer and loosely wrap it to the skeleton and leave it in my shroom attachment container.

[Marc.The.Shark]

Well, I'll ask.....What are you're tank parameters? lol

[Sancho]

Well, I'll ask.....What are you're tank parameters? lol

i don't know. Haven't tested in a long while. Taste like good saltwater to me. I have been very consitant with 0TDS RO/DI top off water and monthly water changes using filtered nsw. I stopped with SPS a couple years ago since then I have stopped chasing numbers in the tank. Tank is coming up on its 10 year anniversary. It's survived Dino's, and old tank syndrome. Last year I replaced the sand and dried and cleaned about 60% of the rock as I was having odd phosphate issues. I will test and post results in a bit.

[Sancho]

SG 1.024

Ca 430 ppm

Mg 1200 ppm

KH 6.4 dkh

[Marc.The.Shark]

I find my LPS kinda like around 8.0 Alk & 1250+ Mg. I get the Alk down around 7.0 & they start to look a little sheepish (whatever the hell that means!) lol. But I've never had one pop its top. 10yr old tank, you need to be teaching me! longest run I've had was 5yrs or so on an 8 gal. I've come to accept that some things in this hobby have no explanation that I can come up with! That's a sweet piece tho, hope it can survive without it's bones.

 

Maybe it's a female species & just pissed at the world!! Lol. Probably gonna take some heat for that comment! Ha

 

Edit: I'd have to agree with the trauma related explanation as well tho, sounds like the most reasonable

[clownfitch]

If it completely detached from the skeleton it will not re-attach. You may damage the polyp if you try to hold it down on the skeleton also so I wouldn't if I were you. The only option I see is to put it in the container that you described and care for it accordingly and hope that it will regrow its skeleton before it croaks. LPS like the alkalinity in the moderate to higher range from my experience also. You may get faster skeleton growth if you are able to get that value up some and maintain it.

[Chris!]

You kill this thing off yet or what sanchoooo

[Sancho]

You kill this thing off yet or what sanchoooo

nope...I turned one of my RW8's off. Its been chillin in the sand bed. Fed it last night. Gonna make an acrylic box for it and see if it will re grow its skeleton.

[Chris!]

nope...I turned one of my RW8's off. Its been chillin in the sand bed. Fed it last night. Gonna make an acrylic box for it and see if it will re grow its skeleton.

 

Good to hear man, hope it makes it long term

[sky00high]

Curious what happened after?