Damaged Fungia advice

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Kurt_Nelson

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Aug 30, 2006
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Seattle-ish, WA
I've had a short-tentacled Fungia for about 4 weeks now. It was in perfect health when I bought it. I located it on the sand bed, in the bottom of the tank - where it promptly moved itself a few inches from where I had it.

Probably last Wednesday, something fell from the rock above the fungia's new home. It was either a large snail, or one of my larger hermits. I didn't witness the fall, but from what I saw the next day, that's what I've pieced together. The next day, I noticed a discolored sector of the fungia, and the skeleton in that area looked like it'd been broken down - it almost looked like a crater - a crater that looked an awful lot like one of the shells my hermit wears!

Anyway, since last Thursday, that sector of the fungia has been turning white as the coral dies off in that area. Friday night it ate some mysis, and Saturday night it ate a bit of clam. It was still expanding and contracting like normal, but that one sector of the disk looked like it was dieing off.

I'd read mixed reviews on fungia repairing themselves, but had hoped it would pull through. But tonight, it appears the damaged sector appears to be growing. Seems like the damage is spreading around the disk, septa by septa. Kinda makes sense as the tissue wastes away from the damaged edges around. It's not happy looking and not expanding now, and it's mouth is kinda caved in. I haven't tried to feed it yet tonight, but will in a few hours.

My question is if I should yank it out of my tank before it fouls the whole thing?

My QT is currently occupied with a fish that's only been there a week so I don't really want to put it in there. Ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels are all currently at zero, so if the tissue is breaking down my bacteria are keeping things in check. I just don't know if I should expect a major implosion soon, or what.

Any experiences from others would be appreciated!

(Water parameters are 76.8deg, ph 8.3, 8 dKH, 400 Ca, 1.024 SG, 0 phosphates, and 0 ammonia/nitrites/nitrates)

Edit: Nevermind, I decided to pull it from my main tank. Seemed like my crabs were really getting aggressive around the fungia, picking at the edges. I pulled a sample of water from right above the coral (like 1/2" above it) and tested it for ammonia. I was at 0.5+ ppm at that location so I decided to pull it. It didn't smell too good either when I finally brought it to the surface. Bummer - I really liked the guy. Next time... I'll make sure he's in a place where nothing can fall off a rock and on to him
 
You should have left it. Even weeks later after they appear completely dead, they can produce these little daughter colonies called anthocauli.
 
Thanks for the reply Steven. You're probably right. I had intended to leave it in there, but the die off seemed to be happening so quick, over just the course of a few hours. It seemed somewhat controlled over the weekend, but yesterday it just went downhill fast. Not knowing how much gunk the thing was going to give off, and whether or not my system would handle it made me really nervous about having a complete crash. With such a new system (been up 6 months) I just didn't want that happening. :(
 
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