What happened to my brain!

[tprize]

So I have 3 brain corals who all live next to each other with no problems. All of a sudden today one of them is half dead overnight! Please help because I love brains and they were all doing fine. My coral beauty was eating at the dead brain tissue is this a cause or effect? I have had him for over a year with no problems. Here are pics of it before and after, and you can see the other two brains are perfectly fine no problems.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q19/tprize/PC050180.jpg
This is it not 2 weeks ago fine and healthy

Here they are now
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q19/tprize/P2020196.jpg
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q19/tprize/P2020197.jpg
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q19/tprize/P2020195.jpg

Please help all the other corals in my tank look perfect.

[john90009]

Im going to go out a limb here butttt you might want to watch that coral beauty. Unless your water parameters are off which i doubt because it will most likely affect more corals. Make sure the beauty doesnt go for any other corals.

[reefscape15]

have you changed the water flow direction in your tank? I was thinking that maybe the sweeper tenticals from one of the other ones could have gotten it. And for your coral beauty munching on it, it is deffinately not the cause of your corals demise. They will eat the dead tissue in a heartbeat. Hopefully it will grow back for you, but if it keeps wasting away, you might want to try to cut it if you can leave a mouth on the healthy part of the coral

[john90009]

the cyano in the tank is to the left of the hurt brain and the sand to the right is cleaner, unless he cleaned just that part it shows that the flow is probably going from right(stronger ) to the left(weaker) which if it was a sweeper tentacle it would have affected the right side of the brain. Im not saying your wrong im just throwing out some random situations- its funner to sit and observe it all.

[john90009]

Never mind i forgot in his first picture the brain is turned differntly my bad :)

[Ajsim1]

So, if nobody asks about your water parameters, what are they?

It is possible that more corals should be affected by bad water quality, but the trachyphyllia that is dying is on most occasions more sensitive to water quality than the other two brains you have...

[seapug]

It can happen for many reasons, but I would start by moving it away from the other corals it's sitting between then check the tank at night. Those faviids it's next to can send out 6" sweeper tentacles.

[snorvich]

Good advice above /\

[reefscape15]

yes. thank you for reinforcing my theory about the sweepers. I just hope this guys corals will make it through

[tprize]

I will move the flavia now, and place the brain away, since you noticed my beautiful cynao any suggestions for getting rid of it?

[tprize]

By the way I don't know if I mentioned, but this happened in a matter of days, and it has gone past the mouth since I left this morning.... I am really sad, this was my favorite coral and I have had it for a long time now

[mnml]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14302483#post14302483 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by seapug
It can happen for many reasons, but I would start by moving it away from the other corals it's sitting between then check the tank at night. Those faviids it's next to can send out 6" sweeper tentacles.

+1 this is exactly what happened to my brain. i didn't think my favia had such a long reach but i saw it in action. here's a pic of my brain (r.i.p).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v192/Zenit/IMG_4750.jpg
yours doesn't look as bad. i would move away and keep feeding it. if it still eats then it may recover.

[tprize]

It's a total loss the coral is completely dead =( This is the first coral that I have killed I feel terrible

[Gdevine]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14311889#post14311889 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tprize
It's a total loss the coral is completely dead =( This is the first coral that I have killed I feel terrible

Understand your feelings but rest assured things like this happen on a wild natural reef all the time. You learned, and so did I, that these animals need space from Favia's.

The good news; you now got an opportunity to go get a totally new and beautiful brain!

BTW, cyno is caused by 1) poor water quality, 2) poor lighting, 3) high phosphates and 4) to many nutrients in the water. Any 2 in combo of the 4 here will do it every time.

Three non-photo periods (3 days no tank lights) can rid the cyno if it warrants it. I get a bit from time to time but just blow it off or suck it out.