Paly trouble? help

My paly’s fell the other day…thanks seahare… anyway they haven’t been looking good since, trunk is narrowing on them and staying closed, and some lightening of the brown. before this they were growing and doing great for 2 months. All tank params are good. Anyone have any experience with this, what should i do… i was thinking of dipping in tropic marin, but not sure so please help. oh and when they fell they landed kinda close to a fungi plate coral, but didn’t touch that i know of???

Did they land upside down?

Did you put them back in the same spot?

Often times wen a coral gets knocked over it will remian closed and just look pissed anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.

I moved a zoo rock almost a month ago and it hasn’t really opened all the way up since.

Have always heard Fungia were pretty wicked as far as doing corals with other battles. I’ve seen seem them defeat Euphylia(commonly called Harmmer, torch, or frogspawn one of the most notoriously aggressive genus of corals kept in captivity). Fungia can inflated significantly during night time hours in captivity, I’ve seen them double in size in certain conditions, so it is possible even if you are sure it wasn’t on top during the day that it was at some point. Fungia are also mobile corals, so it could have been significantly closer a couple hours before. Have any pictures of it? I love those guys. :slight_smile:

Unfortunately zoanathids and Protopalythoa, while they can survive in a vast variety of conditions and handle dirty higher nutrient conditions than any other animal we keep, they are the most prone to infections. Keep an eye out to make sure they are free of competition(including bubble algae :wink: and not beginning to show obvious rot or decay. If you see something alarming post a picture and we can help advise a treatment.(there are at least four different things I would do to save a colony depending on what is going on)

From an image it looks like they have extremely narrow stalks and I don’t remember seeing anything to that extreme. Most of the time stalks get narrow from low light or over crowding. Was there significantly more macro algae present sometime in the recent past? Was it placed ~ the same place it was before?
For time being keep an eye on it and I wouldn’t recommend any dipping or anything at this point. I would make sure it isn’t in a low flow area as this would aid a bacterial infection.(waste and dead tissue would not be carried away from the coral as easily adding to rot the infection would like making an exponential problem) Keep a close eye on it and keep us updated.

Best of luck. Pretty coral.

to me it looks like they are “reaching” for light. are they further away from the light than before?

Yes Craig they did land upside down. There hasn’t been much algae for a month now… a little brown on the sand, green on the front glass everyday, and i just noticed in the pic theres a small bubble algae right behind the left paly. I wasn’t really concerned about them closing up, but those skinny stalks don’t look good, oh and it was put back almost in the same place, bout 2 inches lower, same flow… and jon heres a pic of my plate, I got it at DPA, its about 2 1/2 ‘’,my 1st one, very cool, i’ll get some more i’m sure, they glow like crazy when just the actinics are on, and under the moonlights its like a neon sign in there.

Sweet. Reminds me of the orange one I picked up at DPA over a year and a half ago. I have ~4 species, but probably about… eh 40 or so corals. If you don’t already know what anthocauli are do a google search. NEVER EVER throw away a fungia coral. They can come back seemingly from the dead after months of nothing and often times with vengeance. Even if you are 100% sure it’s gone I would buy the dried skeleton for a couple bucks. Like many “LPS” they benefit greatly from spot feeding. Speaking of “LPS” these are the epitome of a LARGE polyp stony. That disc or plate is one large polyp or animal as opposed to a similarly sized Montipora capricornis which would have well over 100 polyps!

Here are some really old photos of my ornage fungia (Click here).

to me it looks like they are "reaching" for light. are they further away from the light than before?

agreed but my AoG colony has extended “stalks” as well despite the light level. I know Jon has much more experience with Zs&Ps than i do but when in lower light there are typically other symptoms alogn with extended stalks including smaller polyps and a loose growth pattern. i have a zoa colony in my sump that i bought for food that was under a single outdoor halogen light for over a year. it doesnt even look like a zoa colony anymore. the stalks are 3-4" long and the poyps are almost non existent. it also spreads much further horizontally as a mat before sending up a polyp.

Sometimes 2 inches makes a big difference, especially if something is casting a shadow now. Flow may also be a little stronger which can cause the stalks to thin out a bit - granted it doesn’t look like it’s a flow issue as the palys are almost vertical.

it’s probably just pissed at being dropped on it’s head.

I REALLY like the orange fungia too.