Bubble Coral Recession

[Myka]

My Bubble Coral has two "lobes" to it. You can see the Bubble in question in my avatar and you can kind of make out the two lobes. That photo was taken when the Bubble was looking real good. Both of the lobes haven't been looking as good as they looked last month; the Bubbles aren't as big and they aren't as tightly packed. Half the bubbles on one of the lobes have not been opening at all and have been hanging like deflated little sacs.

Lastnight I pulled the coral out to take a closer look and discovered that the lobe which some of the bubbles weren't opening at all has receded badly. The flesh was all falling apart and there was a bit of a cavity under the flesh which had a bunch of blackened flesh and sand in it. I decided to frag the lobes off eachother, which was really easy to do. I then blasted the heck out of the receded lobe with a turkey baster and blew all the loose flesh and sand out of the cavity (stupidly I did this IN the display tank...). This left the receded lobe with about 50% flesh.

This morning the "good" lobe looks fantastic and back to its normal bubbly self. The receded lobe looks WAAAY better. The bubbles are about 90% expanded where the flesh is still on.

Is there anything else I can do to help the receded lobe? Why did this happen? Was it because too much sand was sitting in the coral? Do I need to gently turkey baste them every once in a while in the evening to blow any sand off them?

Water params are all good. Lighting is T5s and the Bubbles are on the sand about 15" away from the lights. I read that Bubbles aren't too picky about lighting...?

[topqpro]

no pics?

[lessans]

Make sure there is moderate flow where the coral is located that way any sand, organic matter, or uneaten food won't get trapped in the corals flesh. If it isn't in a well circulated area you could probably turkey baste it occasionally to rid any detritus, but I would recommend placing it in a more water-circulated position instead.

[Myka]

Sorry no pics right now...I'll be able to use my friend's camera tomorrow though.

I thought the Bubble needed fairly low flow or it will be irritated and/or rip the bubbles? The bubbles do blow around a bit, but I would call it med-low flow. I have 18x turnover in the tank (but the PHs are on a Wavemaker) and the Bubble is in a slower spot.

[Blown 346]

I have found that the best results come from low to medium water flow. The coral could have started to die from the sand sitting on the coral. The sand will basically smother the coral.

My bubble loves light, I have 2 250 watt halides and 2 110 watt VHO's over mine. It takes all it can get.

To help it along though, you should feed it when the feeder tentacles or sweepers are out. I use meaty foods like bits of clam, shrimp and even freeze dried krill. I would feed it several times a week with small bits of food. That should bring it along and nurse it back to health.

[awestruck]

You can also gently place food in between 2 bubbles and it should take the food. I do that with mine all the time. I agree with everyone else regarding lighting and flow.

[Myka]

I moved my PHs around, and it's in a bit higher flow now...prob in the highest flow I get it into keeping it out of the direct current from the MJ1200s.

I do feed them...but probably only once a month or so. They tend to spit the food back out after a couple hours. I'll try feeding more often now.

[awestruck]

Hi myka, awe here again. My bubble gently, very gently, sways in the water. If it's moving too much it probably won't be happy. Try feeding it small pieces of meat 1 x week and see how that goes.

[Myka]

I fed it lastnight, and I didn't see it spit anything out. Hopefully it ate it. I fed the receded one 3 Mysis Shrimp pieces. The other one didn't have its feeder tentacles out.

[grunfeld]

No need to worry about the sweepers being out...feed them when you can. Mine are fed 2 - 3 times per week, never based on sweeper appearance. I generally tuck smaller pieces of a variety of different foods between the bubbles and nature takes its course from there.

Don't worry too much about the recession. My original bubble was so bad, I tossed it into the fuge.....4 weeks later, much to my surprise, I had nine newly growing daughter colonies all over the skeleton.

That particular coral has done that "now you see me, now you don't" routine twice now. They're pretty tough. I even accidentally punctured 3 or 4 bubbles with a wayward siphon hose..thought that'd kill it...no problem, didn't even receed that time.

I agree that they like moderate flow and medium to high light (at least mine do).

Grunfeld in Detroit

[Myka]

It's good to hear that they are tough! I hope I have enough light for the Bubble then...do I?

I finally got some photos:

Receded bubble:


Healthy Bubble and Receded one:

[pledosophy]

They are pretty.

IME they do like light and fairly low flow. too much flow can rip the flesh off the skelton. Mine get mysis every other day, it has doubled in size in two months. It i off the sand bed so no sand will get trapped.

Even though my tank turns over 65x an hour, it is in a lower flow spot and loves it.

[Myka]

If your Bubble is not on the sand, where is it? I thought they weren't supposed to go in the rockwork because if they rub on the rocks it will tear the bubbles...?

[cristhiam]

Good luck with your bubble. I have one that looked the same, mine receded after upgrading to VHOs from NOs around the end of 2003, I was not able to make it happy no matter where I put it or feed it, I still have it but it's all inside the skelleton very little bubbles and a few tentacles, but it's been like that for years. Just can't make it happy for some reason. Doesn't look like much now.