Feeding my Open Brain

[cfmx]

We just bought about a month ago an already established aquarium. When moving it we made sure to keep all the water, rock, sand and bio balls to keep the tank from doing a full cycle again. So far everything in it is doing great (clams, mushrooms, zoos, leather, fish) except my open brain. I can't seem to get it to eat and have notice a small spot where it is pulling away from its skeleton. I really would like to keep this guy alive. Not sure what is wrong. I feed all my corals brine, cyclop, dt, black magic and a couple others. I have tried giving it shrimp, silverside and frozen w/ no luck. One thing I notice is we have a blue tang that is constantly rubbing into it. Could this be the problem. I read in an invert book that some tangs can kill open brains but it didn't go into much detail. Any help would be appreciated. Oh, it's not in any direct current and is located in the lower corner of our tank away from all other corals. The guy who we bought the tank from said he had the brain for about 2 years. But only had a clown fish in the tank.
Thanks,
Tina

 

[Anonymous]

first off don't overfeed your corals - this is a very common mistake. in general other then LPS's like your open brain and non photosynthetics like suns corals, corals get what they need from the bacteria/detritus/suspends/solutes in the water that comes from feeding the fish. I target feed my LPS's every sunday morning with a pipet just when the lights come on a very small amount of mixed cyclops, mysis and a vitamin sup. this is when they have their feeding tenticles extended. I turn off the pumps. overfeeding and use of some of those things you listed just leads to water quality issues and no real benifit.
and yes any fish that constantly harrasses a coral can kill it and tangs can be one of the worst when it comes to LPS's cause they will eat their excrement and nip at them. if this is your prob one or the other most be removed. i have only had one tang that was a nipper - and had to get rid of it
but tank specs are always helpful when diagnosing troubles - size flow lighting and water tests would help to see if something else is a possible cause...........

 

[reefman23]

John covered it well. Just a note though... I hate to say it, but usually once you see tissue ressession, the coral is pretty bad off. Is it still inflating like it used to, or does it looked like it is sucked to the skeleton?

Jesse

 

[cfmx]

Actually giving it a couple of days and the brain is larger than it has ever been fully inflated. I went to a couple of pet stores to see if any one had one on display and sure enough I found one. The one in the pet store has it's feeder tenticles out so now I know what to look for. My still hasn't had it's tenticles out but maybe it getting what it needs from the invert food in the water. Once I notice it has its tenticles out I will try feeding until then I think I'm going to leave it alone.
It is a beautiful brain that I would hate to loss. I will keep everyone posted on its recovery.
Thanks for your help
Tina :strip