New Open Brain Health - 10/27/03
I recently purchased my first live coral - a brain coral. <Very well>  It's about 3" long and has pretty fluorescent green coloring. It is very hard and relatively flat.  Since I have purchased it (only about 10 days ago), I have seen pictures of other brain corals that are "fluffy" and appear to have fluid inside them. <Yes. Fascinating to watch>  My coral has not changed in ANY way since I purchased it.  Is it dead? <Likely not. Is the color bleached in any way? is the white of the skeleton showing through? Should be placed low in the tank preferably on a sandy bottom with some room for expansion> Was it dead when I purchased it? <I don't know was it? It is not necessarily dead because it is not expanding>  What should I be looking for? <Tentacles extracted around the inner rim (feeding) and expansion of polyp> I tried looking for diseases on the net & saw bleaching etc. <On our site???? We have more than that!!>  I just need to know if it's young & that is why it looks that way and that I should be patient or it's dead. <Be very patient!! Don't move it. It could still be in an adjusting phase. Read all that you can about Trachyphylliidae here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/trachyphlliidae.htm> Please advise. <Knowledge is have the battle. Read through the various FAQs and articles for Trachyphyllia -Paul>   Thanks so much for your time. JoAnne

Does my Brain (coral) need help?
Hi Crew !  You've been great help in the past so lets try it again.
<Glad you have benefited!>
Presently have a 46 gallon bow front with roughly 90 lbs of live rock and assorted healthy fish. Tunicate and sponge growth here and there. I would think this is a sign of a healthy tank also. Lighting consists of one Coralife 10k and one Hagen Marine-Glo actinic staying on 9 hours per day. Good filtration and moderate skimmer. I am a believer in Tom Walsh's theory that you don't have to have a complex system to be successful in this hobby just good husbandry.
<All sounds reasonable.  I do also subscribe to the KISS principal... Keep It Simple Stupid!>
Now to my question. I was given a Green Closed Brain Coral two weeks ago . I have never kept corals before but have read that the Favia? was a good beginner. I have noticed that in the last week it is showing some brownish coloring around some of the edges.
<A picture is worth a thousand words here....  This is most likely "browning out" due to differences in (likely less) light in your tank.  If the tissue looks in tact, but is just changing color, I would not worry.>
I have always used SeaChem Reef Calcium and Reef Complete but have been out since this coral was added. I dosed the tank last night and also added Reef Plus. What do you think will happen now. Will he recover from this? Will the supplements get him on the rebound? His feeder tentacles are out when the lights come on however. Thanks for your help. Randy  <The only way to be sure what supplements are necessary is to test for those elements.  My suggestion is to supplement only calcium and alkalinity (should be checked often), and nothing else unless you are testing for it.  In most cases, regular partial water changes will supply enough of everything else.  Over use of supplements can easily lead to overdose.  Occasional feedings of finely chopped meaty seafoods will also be of great benefit.  Best Regards.  Adam>

Caulastrea decline from shipping stress - 2/20/04
howdy, yesterday I receive my candy cane coral I ordered, only to find it appears the skeleton is protruding from some/most of the polyps <from the picture it looks a bit stressed. Acclimate, keep low in the tank and keep up the water quality. Do you feed? Try to target feed>... can u please tell me this is normal and it will grow back? <Likely will grow back in time with maintenance done on your part.>
P.S the polyps have not inflated yet.. is it doomed? <Always a possibility but these are fairly hardy corals. Place at the bottom of your tank to help it acclimate to your lighting. Also, let the company know immediately of the issue upon arrival. Good luck to you and your coral. ~Paul>
P.S.S my camera sucks ;)

Brain Polyp Bailout - stress induced 2/8/04 Dear Anthony, See photos attached of a massive polyp bailout and a new brain coral starting life from bailout.  I get a bailout from the big coral about every three weeks or so and several have "taken root" on nearby rocks. Can I continue to make more small brain corals in this way?. Any way to make a "bed" for the bailout to plant in? Howard <polyp bailout is usually a stress induced reproductive strategy and weakly successful in aquaria in the long term (the donor will likely die in time if not rescued). Looking at the pictures you've provided... the source of stress is clearly the encroaching zoanthids which are (chemically) fiercely aggressive. Your brain "knows" its days are numbered... likely to be killed within a year if the zoanthids continue. As to the polyps themselves... yes, they can be saved/viable but are not inclined to be fast growing or particularly successful sitting in the same tank/water that caused the polyp bailout of the parent. Its a very good rule of thumb to maintain a minimum of 10" between all corals... and be sure to use carbon or some other chemical filtration regularly (changed weekly in small portions). Large weekly water changes and zone use too will help temper allelopathy causing these issues/bailout. Best of luck! Anthony>

Gall crab 1/13/04
I have what I believe to be a female gall crab living in my closed brain coral.  Should she be removed? Thanks much! Jeff Wagner
<they are rarely a problem my friend... the coral will usually grow around them. If your coral exhibits normal polyp cycles and feeding... no worries. Anthony>

Green open brain necrosis 4/14/04
First off: this site is incredible! You guys are one of the best
resources I've found yet (still new to the hobby though).
<Thanks for the kind words!>
Anyway regarding my problem, I searched & browsed the site/FAQs, and  got some good info, then tried the public forum, but no responses, so here goes. In a nutshell, after being out of town for 5 days my open green brain is suffering serious tissue necrosis which was not at all evident before I left.
<You will find that one of the amendments to Murphy's Law states that these things will always happen when you are out of town.!<g>>
This is a new 37 gal tank (2 months old), but the brain was doing quite well before I left town (already in the tank for 1 month, bad advice from my LFS).  When I returned from my trip everything in the tank looked fine except for the brain, which showed a small area of what looked like irritation (bright green spot, slightly dented-in looking). Today it's blossomed into full-blown tissue necrosis across one lobe. I lifted up the brain (from the base, using a glove) and upon closer inspection the affected polyp tissue looks like it has some tiny holes bored into it--like
termite holes in wood.
<Open brains are a bit more sensitive to water quality than most folks consider them to be.  They are also one of the corals most commonly picked on by fish.  Their fleshy inflated tissue can be easily damaged.>
Here are some possible culprits/factors:
(1) a few days before I left town I added new cleanup crew members, an assortment of snails (Astrea, Nassarius, Ceriths) and some small blue leg hermits. Could these be doing damage? I've seen them waltzing through the button polyp but never anywhere near the brain. (The button polyp and finger leather are a good 18" away from the open brain, which is on the sand with decent light exposure and moderate water flow (no direct laminar flow)).
<It is possible that the hermits damaged the brain, but unlikely.  Any fish that may be nipping?>
(2) the inverts had been added to battle green hair algae which started blooming a week or so prior. I set up the tank with dechlorinated tap water but have been using RO/DI for about 3 weeks now. So there are probably still some phosphates in the tank. I just read a reference to boring green algae on your site but didn't find much info on it. I'm guessing this is unrelated to run-of-the-mill nuisance algae but that's a newbies guess. The tiny holes got me thinking.
<Such boring algae are quite rare, but conspicuous when encountered.  The real issue is that when exposed skeleton becomes colonized with algae, the coral has a hard time overgrowing it.>
(3) While I was gone the house sitter only topped off water with my RO/DI supply, but I think the weather was hot: when I got back the water level was low and specific gravity had shot up to like 1.027 from the normal 1.024. This would have been for 2-3 days at the most.
<No concern over the rise in SG.>
(I performed a 10% water change and brought the salinity down to 1.025, then 1.024 the next day. All other tests were not that remarkable--ammonia, nitrite, nitrate were zero, pH 8.3, temp. 77, alkalinity 3.5 meq/L).
<Keep in mind that drops in salinity are far more stressful to inverts than rises.  Water quality sounds fine.>
(4) I have never fed the coral in the 4 weeks I've had it (more bad advice from the LFS). I just fed the poor guy some minced fresh shrimp per guidelines found on your site.
<Great!  Pieces up to the size of a marble or so should be greedily accepted.>
(5) A week or so ago I moved the coral to the corner of the tank, as in its previous location it was growing upwards into a rock overhang and I was afraid it would get an abrasion. The new location should be getting plenty of light but it's possible water flow is weaker in that area. Even so, would that cause tissue necrosis?
<Perhaps you are seeing the effects of previous damage?  Open brains prefer moderate current, but are very tolerant of fairly low current.>
Thanks for any advice. I have pics if that would help but it basically looks like the green brain 2/3 of the way down this page, but worse: www.wetwebmedia.com/corldisfaq2.htm  Your fan, John MB
<My hunch is that there was some damage, and the coral was not able to cope because of the immaturity of your tank.  There are no measurable parameters that suggest maturity, and it is a very non-specific term.  Suffice it to say that corals do better in systems that are at least a few months old.  Best regards.  Adam>