Acans losing flesh

[KalistoX]

I'm stumped - one of my Acan's lost its flesh overnight and I have no idea what's going on. No signs of nipping or predation, but when I woke up this morning, its flesh was literally flapping from the skeleton. The only thing that's changed recently is my lighting schedule, but I wouldn't have thought that'd cause an issue like this. The rest of my Acan's seem fine, so I'm really confused.

[flwrbee]

Got any pics of the damaged Acan? What's your tank's livestock like - any new additions recently? How many colonies of Acans are you running?

[KalistoX]

My tank's got a mix of fish - Kole Tang, Hepatus, six line, royal gramma, and a mandarin. For cleanup, I've got red and blue leg crabs.

[KalistoX]

I have 2 more Acans, one of which is in this pic.

[wolfden]

I recall Mike Paletta from American Reef sharing a similar experience. He discovered asterina starfish were irritating his LPS corals, causing issues. His solution was introducing harlequin shrimp, which resolved the problem.

[tetraTim]

That's some serious damage. I'd suggest leaving the skeleton in the tank for a bit, see if it can recover. Had an Acan come back from the bare bones before, so it's worth a shot.

[KalistoX]

I've left the skeleton in, but now it's attracting algae.