Favites shrinking and dying: causes and solutions

[havenmix]

I'm freaking out here. I just got this new coral and I'm acclimating it, and I find snail/nudi eggs underneath. So I go through the whole process - CoralRx dip, superglue the entire bottom part, and let me tell you, this thing's huge. It's like the size of my hand. Took forever to superglue it, and I had to do it upside down, flesh against the surface. Then I quarantine it for a couple of hours to see if I missed anything. Finally, I put it in the tank.

Next morning, it's shrunk and I can see the skeleton poking out. It was in medium flow and medium lighting, so I'm thinking that's not the issue. The picture makes it look okay, but if you look closer, you can see the skeleton's visible.

[havenmix]

Help anyone?? I'm freaking out here. I just got this new coral and I'm pretty sure I messed it up.

[fable08]

I'd just keep an eye on it for now, minimal interference. It's probably just going through some shock from the transport and handling, especially with the supergluing. This might take a few days to recover from. If the tissue keeps receding after that, then we might need to take further action to stop it from spreading. Does it respond to food like reef roids when you feed it at night?

[havenmix]

Glad you mentioned that, I just fed Reefroids not too long ago and I did see some slight mouth movements on a few polyps, kinda like it's trying to pucker up. It was sliming a lot too, but my bristletooth tang seemed to have cleaned most of it up. Now I'm wondering, could my tang be the culprit behind this?

[fable08]

The slime during feeding is probably just its digestive mucus - many LPS corals do this to help grab onto food. If it's getting enough light and eating, I think it should be fine, parasites aside. The fact it's responding to food is a good sign, means it's not completely exhausted.

[havenmix]

I was actually seeing a lot of slime earlier, even before I fed it. And I'm also concerned, could my tang be causing more harm by constantly picking at it?

[fable08]

I'd be concerned about the tang picking at it, since it's likely to retract its polyps if it's being bothered. Is the tang targeting the flesh or just the algae around the edges of the coral?

[havenmix]

It's not looking great. Most of the green is gone now, just skeleton left. Polyps are still there though. I decided to give it another CoralRx dip and moved it to a higher spot where my tang don't usually hang out. We'll see how it goes from here.

[FiShyPet]

I'd suggest applying superglue to the exposed areas where the tissue is receding, might just help prevent further damage and stop it from spreading, at least that's my take on it.

[havenmix]

I just took a picture of it, doesn't look great, but you can see the skeleton poking out now