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I have an established euphyllia section of my 180g tank with orig 6 multihead torches; over the course of the last month & 1/2 I’ve lost a couple colonies seemingly 1 head at a time. It also seems to only affect 1 colony at a time with all the other torches looking fine... I’m about to lose another colony :( All my water parameters are in check, I do weekly water changes of 10ish percent, haven’t noticed any menacing fish, cuc or bugs... any ideas/advice is appreciated.
Did you change the flow before they started dying? I think they can be sensitive to flow.
By chance, do you have peppermint shrimp? My peppers loved eating torches and mushrooms. Now I just have ugly corals.
Hmm- I have some scarlet skunk cleaner shrimps that I’ll be eyeing a bit closer; they mainly keep different hrs than I do but I haven’t seen them around the torches. Re: flow— it hasn’t changed but it changes throughout the day. Most of them seem happy and don’t spend the day recessed unless they’re the obligatory head that’s on the chopping block.
It sounds just like what happened to mine. It was pretty disappointing watching them recede and die off... I am pretty sure cleaner shrimp like those do not eat any corals, so they are probably not messing with the torches. How long have the torches been in your tank before they started dying? Do you feed them?
I am asking because some other people who know more will probably ask those same things and then give helpful answers. I hope you can keep them alive, I really hate watching corals die!
Appreciate the help- hate seeing them die too- they’ve been in the tank for 2-3mos. I broadcast feed reef roids 1-2x wk and also feed 2cubes of spirulina daily mainly for fish but it goes everywhere. I haven’t been point feeding them yet; may try point feeding pe mysis.
I've lost euphyllia in the same way multiple times. They are some of my favorites and it sucks. I have some tips/theories that may help. This is based on experience, not exact science so use with a grain of salt:)
I think euphyllia can get sick easily. When one head dies or is sick the others near it become susceptible and often die too. I think red slime is the most popular culprit because its easy to identify but I think there are more invisible killers as well. I think other corals can carry whatever kills them too. I've had many times when I've put in a new euphyllia just to have it die and take out several established heads or even colonies as well. I've put in other types of LPS too just to have it take out euphyllia as well. Its happened enough times and I'm good enough with my tank to feel like its sickness and not husbandry.
Now I have several steps to help insure euphyllia not bombing my tank. First, I make sure any new additions are not receding. Second I dip them all before going in the tank. I know we are supposed to always to this anyway but for sure in this case. I use iodine sometimes melafix and sometimes both. Anything that is receding in my tank is cut and tossed before it dies and bombs the others. I find the morning is the best time for spotting heads that need a cut. I dip colonies I have to cut dead or receding heads off as well just in case. I also set up a coral qt for euphyllia to watch them before they go into the tank. Some of this stuff like dip and qt is just good practice anyway but for euphyllia I find it more crucial than others. Before I dipped my euphyllia I had these rounds of death tied to a new addition every so often. Once I started to dip all new additions it happened way less. Hasn't happened since using a QT (knocks on wood) Hope that helps some.
Could it be brown jelly on the heads?
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I've tried to keep those nice gold Australian torches only to have them slowly die/wither away while all my other frogspawn and hammers are doing fine/growing new heads. I don't understand but hope someone can chime in and save yours..
Sadly, I lost the colony; if it occurs again I’ll be quicker to remove the problem head (instead of revive) in hopes to isolate & dispose of the issue. Seems like once a torch head starts to recede, it isn’t coming back. My take away is, as MysonKing stated, neighboring heads are susceptible to stress. On the upside, all my other torches are doing well.
Yeah, I was checking out the tank before work a couple of weeks ago & noticed one head looking bad, figured I would cut it off when I got home. Got home to find a big pile of mush! No rhyme or reason, sorry for your loss.
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