Brown discoloration on brain coral        12/21/15 <Why send four megs of uncropped pix? What are our requested limits?> Hi Again! Looks like I need your thoughts here. I have had this red brain coral for about a year and he has been thriving. Recently I have noticed some brown discoloration. He still expands fully. Is this the start of brown jelly disease? <Possibly> The yellow leather above has been getting huge and is now partially shading him a bit. <Ahh! Much more likely an allelopathogenic effect from the Alcyoniid then.... see WWM Re; separate the two more, use chem. filtrants, improve ORP/RedOx....> Or are my halides too intense for him? <Doubtful> Thanks for any input. My water parameters are excellent. I am pretty obsessive with maintenance and testing. I would be shocked if it were a water quality issue. <Not likely> Kinley <Bob Fenner>

Re: Brown discoloration on brain coral       12/21/15 Thank you! I'm relieved. Sorry about the pic size. <Ahh! This requirement, request is posted on where folks find to write us> It was not my intent to overload. I'll figure that out for next time! Not tech savvy :-( <Appreciate your self-effacement. Cheers, BobF>

Dying Coral? A joke? No data of use or reading 6/27/10 I am not really sure exactly what type of coral this is. <...? Looks like a "melting Mussid" of some sort... perhaps a Lobophyllia sp.> I have had it for about a year and it has always been beautiful. The last week however it has really started to droop badly. <!> I have read that corals droop like this when they are stressed, <... to the point of dying> but I don't know what is stressing it. It was located near a spot where I had recently placed some new stuff <...> and I thought that may be the problem, so I moved it up higher in the aquarium so it would get more light and airflow, but so far it isn't helping. <What? Is this a joke? Really? Read on WWM re the family, allelopathy. Bob Fenner>

Melt down!

Re: Dying Coral? Mussid... 6/27/10 Maybe I am just stupid, but I really do not understand your response. I have looked on your website and the only thing I find that may help is that maybe I need to move to coral to where there is less airflow, but as far as what is causing my problem I am still at a loss. <... what? Again... is this a joke? B> Re: Dying Coral? This is no joke and I am getting a little annoyed. I am looking for help in keeping my coral healthy. <Please see re the family... Mussidae.... on WWM. B>

Coral problem, lack of data, reading 1/23/10 Hi Crew, Thanks to you all, I always can find an answer to any questions I have. This time I got a problem with my LPS. I had it I'm my tank for about 8 months and it was doing good : reacting to target feeding, normal day/night contractions, was growing slightly too . <Lobophyllias are typically tough, given basic conditions, care> I target feed my corals about 3 times a week, partial water change 2 times a week, water parameters are OK. <...?> Last night it did not respond to feeding, and this morning I noticed a hole where was its mouth. I'm sure it was not there last night. What it could be? <Indication of...?> How can I solve the problem? Everything else is doing well. Even I got Goniopora sp. growing from nowhere on my live rocks. Thank you very much for all your help to hobbyists like me. Best regards, Igor <Please read here: http://wetwebmedia.com/mussiddisfaqs.htm and the linked files above, to give you input, background into the types of information we're looking for. Bob Fenner>

Re: coral problem, Lobo... 1/24/10 Hi Bob, Thank you for the link. It is helpful. I am just so stupid to find out how to insert my input there. Best regards, Igor <Umm, get some help. Really. B>

Blastomussa wellsi Troubles 2/18/06 Hello. I (as the title says) am having some troubles with a Blasto Wellsi I recently purchased. I bought it about a week ago and placed it in the bottom of the tank in low flow and low light. For the first few days, it opened fully and looked great. But then on about the third day, it didn't open completely. Day by day, it's been opening less and less. I wouldn't be worried so much about it, but this is the exact say way my last Blasto Wellsi colony died last fall. I was never able to figure out then why it died and finally decided it was probably caused by something that happened before I bought it. Now I'm not so sure. I have since lifted it up on to a small piece of pvc in the corner to keep it away from the hermit crabs (they have a knack for annoying new corals sometimes). <In addition to hermits, do consider your fish, especially pygmy and dwarf angels and blennies.  You may have to observe very carefully to notice them picking at the coral.  Also, in my experience, these corals are very sensitive to water quality especially those parameters that can't be measured, like the noxious defensive chemicals of other corals.> The lighting is two 96W PC 12 hours a day on a 45 gallon tank. It's been set up for about a year now. As for water conditions, they're fine (78 degrees; S.G. 1.025; 0 Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Phosphate; Calcium 430) as they have always been, and no other corals (including many zoos and Shrooms, a few LPS and SPS, and some rather large softies) are showing any signs of trouble. <What about alkalinity?  Without proper alkalinity, calcium is unusable to corals.  Also, Zoanthids, mushrooms and softies are all good candidates to produce harmful allelopathic chemicals that my be harming the Blastomussa.> Nothing has been done since I received the coral that would change water clarity (water changes, cover glass cleaning, new bulbs, carbon, etc.). I think that's all the info I can offer.  Thank you, Kevin <You can try running some carbon to help reduce the defensive chemicals from the other corals and please do measure alkalinity regularly and correct if low.  Hope this helps.  Best regards.  AdamC.>

Lobophyllia tissue recession 3/31/05 Hello, I have a Lobophyllia spp. For 2 months and never has been very healthy, firstly started with a small body reduction in the upper part (it was inclined in the aquarium) so I moved it down. But 2 weeks ago it started to have a severe body depletion, I have read different articles about corals, bleaching etc and I would like to know if I should move it down a bit more or any other tip. Thanks very much.  <"Tissue recession" is the most common term for this. Bleaching refers to the loss of Zooxanthellae (symbiotic algae) and color from otherwise normal healthy tissue. Lobophyllia is quite adaptable to different lighting conditions, but in my experience it is quite sensitive to water quality and the defensive chemicals produced by other corals. I would suggest thoroughly testing your water and making sure the following parameters are in the proper range: pH 8.0-8.4, Alkalinity 2.75-4.0 mEq (9-12 dKH), Salinity 1.025, Calcium 350-450, temp 79-82. If you have soft corals (especially leathers or mushrooms), it would be a good idea to run small amounts of carbon and change it weekly and perform 20% monthly water changes. Best Regards! AdamC.>

Problem with Lobophyllia Dear Bob, As always, thanks so much for this great site. I have another question that I'm sure you can answer. <I will try> Last Tuesday, I received my order of a Lobophyllia hemprichii (red brain coral) and a Euphyllia glabrescens (torch coral) from a dealer that is well known and, supposedly, very well respected in the trade. When I removed the torch coral from its bag, I could see nothing but the white skeleton and a few places where the polyps were supposed to extend. After two days of waiting, as instructed by the dealer, the polyps never came out and they just became shriveled and died. That must have been RTN. <Maybe> As for the brain, it has not died, but I am very concerned about it. When I first received it, I placed it in the bottom of my 90-gallon tank and even shaded it from the VHO lighting for some time. The coral opened some during the day, but when it retracted, a large part of the skeleton was exposed. In fact, the "spines" show when the coral is contracted. <This happens with new specimens> According to our research, the coral should be of such a size that no part of the skeleton should ever show and that the whole coral should look more robust. The coral we received looks so "thin". When it's expanded, there are pinpoint places that are depressed; and the flesh looks "corroded". The color is rust red now; it may have been darker and lost some of it's color, but that is hard to determine. At times, the coral would expand when the main aquarium pump was turned off, while at other times it would expand when the pump was turned on. The coral gives off this rust-colored cloud when the pumps are turned off. This morning it looked better; however, when I turned off the main pump it retracted and gave off its rust-colored matter. The dealer says in their literature that this coral would "slough off" some when first introduced, but it seems to be sloughing off its flesh and deteriorating. The aquarium is a 90-gallon reef with all parameters at or near perfect reef readings. We have a 30-gallon sump, Turboflotor skimmer, Aqua UV sterilizer, and a water turnover rate of about 10 times per hour. Other inhabitants look great. There is not a heavy bio-load as there is just a purple tang, a peppermint shrimp, some mushrooms, a purple blade, some snails, and a few scarlet hermit crabs, and three sand sifting starfish. All water is purified by Kold Steril. I added vitamin C and some trace elements (Vital Gold) by Thiel, along with Coral Vital by Marc Weiss. Any thoughts? Thanks for any help you can give. Regards, Michael Rivera <Per the descriptions of both newly arrived specimens, it does seem like they were either "in the bag" too long, or suffered some other sort of shipping insult (chilled, overheated... delayed in transit...). At any length, you can just wait at this point and hope that they will regenerate. Nothing in your description points to a difficulty in your system or handling... Bob Fenner>