dying bubble corals?

[ocean.mirage]

I am so frustrated. My bubble corals are dying and I don't know why. Everything else in the tank is doing well. VERY WELL. I have a 30g tank. softies and lps in it. Water specs are perfect. I have tried spot feeding them, they are pretty much dead though. These are my only thoughts.

My white pearl bubble coral has some strange tube worms that are protuding from its skeleton (on the trunk). maybe they are killing it?

My coral beauty angel nips at my small green bubble coral a lot.

Do these corals need a ton of flow? Because that is the one issue in my tank right now, not enough flow.

Thanx for your opinions!

[Miasma_F]

Don't know about the worms, but it doesn't sound good.

I've always had a difficult time maintaining good alk and calcium and I notice my bubble is first to show symptoms. I also learned that my bubble likes a lot of light. I moved it higher in the tank and it started expanding more.

Good luck.

[cristhiam]

Well you just said it :)
"My coral beauty angel nips at my small green bubble coral a lot."

[ocean.mirage]

I always thought it would hurt a coral beuty to nip at something that would sting. Strange.

My calcium is at 470mg/L. Mt alkalinity is 10.5.
both in perfect ranges. I dose magnresium strontium and change water every week. I freshwater dipped the pearl bubble to get rid of worms, but they are still there and now the pearl really looks hurtin.

Are the worms normal? there are like 15 on it, on the skeleton. they are 1/16' tubes that extend out about 3/8". they are red/brown.

[Gary Majchrzak]

it's not the worms- it's the Angel

[ocean.mirage]

are the worms bad though?

[ocean.mirage]

will the angel go after rose buds, colt coral, hammer coral, figer leather, toadstool, or frogspawn?

So gfar, I have only ever seen it nip at bubble corals.

[Gary Majchrzak]

Plerogyra and Physogyra are often collected with hitch hikers attached to their skeletons. Without seeing the worms we cannot possibly know what they are- but I'm willing to bet they're not "bad".
The only person that can answer what corals your Angelfish will nip at is YOU. Every individual fish has it's own unique tastebuds.

One last bit of advice:
bubble corals can "come back from the dead". If you remove the Angelfish (or the Bubble corals) to another aquarium, the corals can recover.

[awestruck]

I agree with Gary M.--perhaps you should choose between the bubbles or the angel. Bubble corals like a lot of room, gentle water movement, and medium lighting. If the angel is nipping they will die, eventually.

[ocean.mirage]

would it help to frag the bubble coral in half and expose some fresh skeletal materials

[IPowderBlueTang]

As the others have mention it is your Angel that is nipping and evetually will kill your bubble coral, so you will have to decide betwwen the coral or angel to keep and eventually the angel will decide to nip at you other corals if it isn't doing it now. What will fragging the coral do when it is being nipped by a fish constantly even fragging in half might kill your bubble!

[awestruck]

I wouldn't frag it because doing that will stress it more than it already is.

[awestruck]

Angels are kind of hit-n-miss when it comes to nipping. Some do and some don't. If it doesn't have the bubbles to nip it will probably choose a different animal to hurt.