Scolymia help

[tuajia]

Hi all, recently transported my scoly from my office tank to my home tank last Friday. It's an ordinary scoly, maroon in color. Pics below

It was doing OK in the office tank for 3 months. Parameters normal except for high nitrates (40 ppm) and using an ordinary 2ft beamswork led light. I don't feed it either. Then I transported it home, did a 1 hour drip acclimatization and put it in at night. 4 days later....

I'm panicking now, so I put it in the hang on box I use as a sump in case it's being prepared on. So far from my observation, I don't know if it's water parameters because my parameters in my home tank are actually better (20 ppm nitrates, everything else normal) and I use a hydra 26 at 40% intensity for most colors. Or perhaps my yellow angel in picking at it? He does nip my bubble and hammer every now and then but never damaged anything so badly before. Also, the recession was quite gradual since 2 days ago.

So hope to hear some advice on my next course of action. If not, I plan to just bring it back to my office tank and hope for the best.

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[tuajia]

Forgot to add, I noticed that the left side (in the worst condition) is actually the part that was nearer to the light from the hydra. So perhaps it's still too intense for the scoly, since it came from a badly lit tank? Feel so sad to see it in such bad shape

Thanks for the advice bros

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[tuajia]

Quick update. I just checked on it and my makeshift sump is on reverse light cycle. Caught these 2 crabs walking around eating detritus. Anyone can ID them? My camera is too lousy so I took a video instead. Thanks!

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[JMW]

I'm just gonna take a guess that they could be Sally lightfoot crabs?

[tuajia]

Thanks bro. I observed them for an hour, they seem harmless. Didn't disturb any corals and just sifted through the detritus.

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[JMW]

Well that's good, if anything sallys are supposed to be reef safe..

[Patrick]

Is that a scoly? I have one exactly the same but was told its not scoly. Mine also started showing skeletons and losing color but got fatter after I moved it up to an area with higher flow and feed it. 

[tuajia]

I'm not sure it it's a scoly actually. I bought from a reefer who said it was so I just took his word for it. But today it seems better after I took it away from the light of the hydra. I thought corals bleach under intense light, didn't think the flesh would recede as well. Fingers crossed!

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[Patrick]

Feed it and it will be meaty again. 

[tuajia]

Yeah I tried but it didn't respond well. Feeding tentacles came out but food didn't go into the mouth. In fact it actually pushed the food away. Will try again when it recovers some more. Thanks for the advice bro

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[Patrick]

I just off wave make and filter, squat powder coral food mix with water above it. Can see the mouth open a little think it's sucking in water with the food. Used to feed it pellets and it wacked like there is no tomorrow but after introducing fishes they would snatch the pellets away. No expert just sharing experience haha

[MarcoVan]

If you have expensive fishes, the crabs will make a meal out of them

[tuajia]

Latest update. It's starting to fluff back up but still not responding much to food. The current placement in my sump is super low flow and lower light. Not sure if that's good in the long run but at least it looks better compared to 2 days ago.

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[lWilddogl]

Latest update. It's starting to fluff back up but still not responding much to food. The current placement in my sump is super low flow and lower light. Not sure if that's good in the long run but at least it looks better compared to 2 days ago.

 

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any updates? 

U should raise it higher to light bit by bit day a time. Sudden exposure to high light will shock it.

[bojyeo]

any chiller? What is your water temp?

[tuajia]

any chiller? What is your water temp?

Hmm! That's actually a good question. I forgot to consider that. I use a fan so the temperature is around 28-29 degrees. However, my office tank is 24-25 degrees due to air con. It does rise to 28 degrees when the Aircon is switched off after office hours. Perhaps the higher temp played a part in the coral receding?

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[bojyeo]

I think in office even when aircon is switched off, i believe the tank lighting will be switched off as well either manually or timer based. Intense lighting from LED will "boil" the water. So without a mini chiller, some LPS might not be able to take it. See if you can do something about it.

[tuajia]

Update: the scoly seems to be recovering well. Considering the temp in my home tank is higher than office, I'm guessing that perhaps it was really the intense light that was the problem. Will wait till it's fully recovered then put the scoly back on the tank but put it in a shaded area instead. Thanks all for the advice so far!

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[lWilddogl]

 Good luck buddy! Hope it does well!

[tuajia]

Finally recovered fully. It's now in a rescue tank, left hand side near the torch corals. Swells up to about the size of a mandarin orange under 40% intensity light. Must "thank" my yellow angel for forcing me to set up a new tank to keep all my brain type lps away from it lol.

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[tuajia]

Just an update. It's been some time since I put that weird mystery scoly (still not sure what lps coral it is). It has grown to a monster size of 4" in diameter and is beginning to aggressively sting other corals. Already lost 2 hairy mushrooms, 3 Duncan heads and one weird red mushroom to it. Suspect my wrasse is knocking corals into it when it buries itself. I guess it's doing very well? Lol. It's also starting to get some speckles of orange in the purple skin, very obvious under actinic light. Here's a pic of it under normal light since my phone camera cannot take blue light photos properly. You can see a bit of the orange

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[tuajia]

Actually, now that i think about it, and after comparing skeletons, also observing that the coral seems to be getting bigger... and flatter... almost looking like a PRATA! Could this actually be a plain colored prata coral?? Any experts can advise?

[tuajia]

Actually, now that i think about it, and after comparing skeletons, also observing that the coral seems to be getting bigger... and flatter... almost looking like a PRATA! Could this actually be a plain colored prata coral?? Any experts can advise?

[Jaxseconds]

Hi tuajia,

i recently bought a scolymia and was wondering how do you tell if it’s healthy. Mine is starting to show a little bit of boniness. Similar to ur first pic but very minor. 

[Harlequinmania]

On 11/12/2017 at 11:49 PM, Jaxseconds said:

Hi tuajia,

i recently bought a scolymia and was wondering how do you tell if it’s healthy. Mine is starting to show a little bit of boniness. Similar to ur first pic but very minor. 

it should remain open up most of the time