Tropical Fish Forums

Flame Angel · Regulars Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Location: Sydney, Australia

I have recently found sections of my soft corals in different parts of the aquarium, and I can see where they have broken off from. I'm not sure if they are reproducing or are being eaten/biten off. They were mostly fine with my 2 ocellaris clownfish and flameangel, but when I introduced a Dusky Wrasse, these things started to happen. Any help on whats going on and what I should do would be great.

sirreal63 · Advisors Joined: 21 Feb 2004 Location: Meadowlakes, TX

What kind of soft corals? Mushrooms proliferate by dropping small ones all over the place. A pic would be very helpful here. Flame angels are known to make snacks out of corals too.
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Flame Angel · Regulars Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Location: Sydney, Australia

The coral is a torch coral.

sunshine84 · Regulars Joined: 25 Jan 2006 Location: Sydney, Australia

How often are you feeding the torch coral? If it appears to be receding, and you can see more of the skeleton, I would presume the coral is dying. I had something similar happen to one of my torch corals. It's hard to say without seeing a pic though...

sunshine84 · Regulars Joined: 25 Jan 2006 Location: Sydney, Australia

Something I should probably also mention... torch corals are large polyp stony (LPS) corals, not soft corals. See this photo:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=509&N=0

You'll probably notice that your coral has a hard base... well if the polyps start receding, and you can see more of the base. Or if the polyps fall off, leaving the base exposed... then I think thats what they do when they're dying.

I hope I've explained this OK... I'm no expert, so I could be wrong though. Just make sure that you are feeding this coral at least once per week.

sunshine84 · Regulars Joined: 25 Jan 2006 Location: Sydney, Australia

OK, I've found some information...

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/caryfdgfaqs.htm

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/carydisfaqs.htm

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/lpscorals.htm

I'm pretty sure the torch is from this family.

SLACkra

I had a simular thing occur. this was when my dad decided a torch coral would be pretty and decided to get one for the tank. they receded then eventually detached from the skeleton and drifted around the tank untill they died.

how long have you had the coral? what type of lighting do you have? where is the coral placed in the tank, amount of flow height on the rockwork etc?

and finally and probably the msot important what are the NH3, NO2, NO3, pH, Alkinity and Ca levels of your tank water?

andrew