what the f%#$

[deacon hemp]

Today i woke up and looked over at my nano,and was devistated

one half of my green open brain is dead.The brain was kickin ass

too and was my fav coral,it also is divided in 2 halfs and looks

fragable the smaller half is gone.The only thing thats changed in my tank was i lost a purple nudibranch but i removed him right away and no other corals were damaged.Could it be the nudi?

Should i attempt to frag?

[jt48]

Could it be?

Yes. Did you test your water?

[deacon hemp]

Yes i did check the freakin water all zero's and if was the nudi it

would be from it's toxins so u can't test the water.The other thing

was i placed the brain on the substrate from the rockwork a few days ago.Why is it only 1 half of the brain?

[deacon hemp]

I was just told last night while i was at work something that

was described like a bristle worm was coming out of the now dead half of a brain.Could a bristle worm of done this,the brain is on the substrate now and is exposed to bristles.

[reiple]

Brain corals seem not to do well when placed on the sand/substrate. In their natural habitat they are attached to rocks (not sitting on the bottom atop of sand).

[printerdown01]

The open brain should be just fine in the sand... This is actually their natural habitat. If you take a look at their skeleton they have a perfectly designed anchor for the sand. Odd side note: some spp. of fox coral have this design, but are normally found on rocks (as far as I'm aware). Open brains will actually prefer to not attach themselves to anything. As for whether the nudi caused the problem, I would speculate on the side of yes... It is not the decomposing body that you have to worry about (this is why I don't understand the idea of yanking the body as soon as possible to save the tank). As soon as the creature dies, or even become stressed, it will release toxins into the water. However, some nudibranchs are more toxic than others, and some toxins will not effect one sp. while it could devistate another. You have a very intersting/curious problem though: only one brain polyp was effected. This would also lead me to look at other possibilities as well (so keep your eyes open). But, it is possible that the smaller peice was a little bit weaker than the larger(?). p.s. the bristleworm didn't do it, he is only there cleaning up the scraps. How is the expansion on the other brain...? Normal, a little below normal, way under normal ect...?

[tinyreef]

i agree with printer, there may be another cause. have you checked the brain underneath for injuries? anything in the tank capable of nipping at it? the injury is so localized i'd suspect direct injury from something rather than a system-wide issue.

 

maintenance-wise i'd suggest:

taking a turkey baster and blow off any loose decaying flesh. (suck it out too) bacteria that takes hold of dying/dead brain coral flesh may go after the surviving living half.

 

run some carbon media to extract any nasty toxins or general crappie from the water.

 

btw sahin has a beautiful open brain on his substrate so i also agree w/printer that its location should be fine.

 

edit: i'm rereading this thread and realized printer was blaming the nudi. that i don't tend to agree with, partly maybe.

[Crakeur]

the bristle worm would have attacked the brain if it was sick and dying. They generally don't go after healthy animals so I would rule out the worm as the culprit.

[deacon hemp]

Thanks guys fer the replies.

 

Printer: the other half of the brain is lookin perfect,and fully expanded.As fer the nudi it probably wasn't him because everything else is thriving,and you should pull anything dead

out of the tank right away anyway toxic or not.

 

Tiny:I agree with you it is so localized it has to be something else,

the only other thing that i can think of is when i moved it i put it

right in front of my clowns host gsp,maybe they were hosting at

night in it.I saw them do this when i first got the brain then i moved it up on the rocks.And sahin does have a sweet brain,

mine is the only one that ive seen open as much as his after a feed!#@$%^%$ i'm ####ed.thnx again.

[Dave ESPI]

UCD.

 

Unexplained Coral Death.

 

###### happens.

I recently lost 3 open brains and a meat coral. NFC why.

 

Advice:

look for a secondary bacterial disease. White line, cyano, some forms of RTN are very rapid, and then stop at healthy parts of a coral. try a coral dip in 12 % solution of TECH D and formalin for 5 minutes.

[deacon hemp]

Dave espi i will try the dip u mentioned,but my brain was practically splitting by it's self should i attempt at a fragging,no

one answered to that.I was thinking of fragging before the death.

[reiple]

printerdown01 you're right about open brain. it is a substrate coral. Most brain corals however are not. Seems this hobby is more speculative then exact. One day your corals are ok. Next they are dead.

[deacon hemp]

The brain is showing skeleton but it looks like it is regrowing green flesh over the plates.It may just pull through,(i hope!).

[tinyreef]

i care deacon! i'd care even more if you give me a frag of that open brain later.

 

glad to hear it's doing better. did you ever determine what caused the smaller brain's death?

[Pikelet]

Well ...... if you're sure there wasn't a blackout for a few hours while you slept, I go for the simplest explanation first - dead nudi. You might want to run some carbon for a day.

[deacon hemp]

To tinyreef yer to far away for a frag but i would of,and it looks like the smaller half of the brain is live after all,everyday it looks better.