Good intentions gone bad...

[floridaboy704]

Today I decided to re-scape my tank to make room for some new additions. I finally got all the LR moved around and everything was looking good. I moved the xenia closer to the light so maybe they won't grow 10 feet tall, I moved my GSP to a higher flow area, moved my hammer frag to the middle of the tank so he gets better use of the light, and put my newest mushroom up on the LR so he would be up off the sand and finally get a good foothold on something.

I just took a look in the tank wiht the flashlight and the mushroom is all closed up, the hammer looks like its almost 100 percent withdrawn into the skeleton (which it didnt even do when I brought it home), zoas are closed, after picking off 4 asternia from the colony which they have never hurt before... looks like im going to have to totally remove the asternia as best i can. Too bad, I like them have only seen them munching on algae until this week. I think i really messed up and i hope the hammer isnt dying...

This sucks...... rant over.

 

[jballa15]

i think they will be fine, that is normal for soft corals especially when you touch them, move them around, snails crawl on them, or the lights are off. Im pretty sure the snails will never hurt your corals, they probably just foubd a hidden patch of algea between the polyps. You should just check them in the next few days when the lights are on. I would make sure none of them are touching or have touched one another as many corals like zoanthids can sting severely. Also, the hammer corals can be a little touchy and should watch him a little closer over the next few days.

 

[jballa15]

maybe im stating the obvious answers, but just wanted to give hope : )

 

[floridaboy704]

The hammer is the one thats worrying me. The only reason I moved him is because it had managed to get knocked over a couple of days ago by something. He looked okay so I relocated him today. He was fully expanded earlier today, only after the lights went out is when he started to withdraw into the skeleton which kind of startled me because I have never seen him do it before. It has shrunken up on occasion but I have never seen skeleton before. BTW its a branching hammer. All params are perfect I just tested. I hope that moving it around didnt injure or kill it.

 

[reefage518]

i think it might be because sand and debris from moving your live rock settled in small areas, so they are deflating all the way so when they inflate back up the crud will be pushed off and or out. just a guess though...

 

[reefage518]

my frog spawn does it every once and a while, i think there are multiple reasons for it.

 

[floridaboy704]

thats a very good possibility. things did get quite stirred up today. I managed to piss off just about everything in my tank today with the exception of my sixline who loves the new rockwork.

The asternia thing is really bothering me now. I have never had problems from them until recently. I let the two sides of my tank get all algaed up for the snails and the stars but only recently have they started going for the zoa. I caught one asternia on a polyp of my GBP zoa and removed it... that head is now gone. Today I caught one on my new zoa cluster on a new polyp. Hopefully I removed the asternia before it did real damage to the baby polyp although it didnt open up all day. Just about 20 minutes ago I removed one off the adult polyp *pulls hair* Does anyone else have asternia and zoa??? This is weird that last week (and since the tank was set up 2 months ago) all is in harmony and in two days ive removed 4 stars for going after my polyps.

 

[linda lee]

I'm betting everything is closed up simply from the mild stress of being moved. Give it time for your corals to get adjusted to their new surroundings and they'll likely be just fine.

 

[floridaboy704]

Barbara, I have seen my asternia on the zoa many times before as well with no damage. Im betting that I have both kinds in my tank, as some do look different (other than the odd number of legs) than the others with colors and arm length. My green bay packer cluster has been budding and the largest head that has all the buds around it is the one that had the asternia on it and died. All the other heads are healthy and the buds are growing amazingly well. Im not sure if the asternia started to eat the parent head after it died or killed it.

Now I do know that my 2 heads of purple/green zoa were perfectly healthy until the asternia was on it. I picked off 2 asternia from the heads and they have yet to open back up. I know they were healthy. All the stars I have plucked off have been kulled so as not to risk future problems with that star. I felt so guilty doing it, but there are many more "well behaved" asternia left. I have seen up to 3 asternia on my GSP so I know they didnt damage it. Im keeping my eye on them to see what happens.

As for the hammer, hes back up to his full glory this morning and looking healthy, BUT... I did find my hairy mushroom face down on the sand this morning on his frag disc. I'm betting the big serpent star had something to do with it when he was foraging. I fed him some krill last night but he got hyped up and started foraging on his own later and he was in the area when I went to bed. Im sure the mushroom will pull through, he didnt look damaged, just mad that he was face down for who knows how many hours.