HELP! - Brain Coral Lifting off skeleton

[coolhand2]

My brain coral is lifting off his skeleton. Any clue why? I have had him for almost a year with no problems. He was moved into a new tank but water quality is excellent, other corals are doing great.

[TippyToeX]

Nothing is picking at it, no other corals close by that could be stinging it? Have you been feeding it? No changes in the tank (lights, flow, etc)?

Also, can you list your test results?

Sorry for all the questions. Something is making it pretty darn upset.

[coolhand2]

I just noticed an extremely small red anemone - like creature on a portion of his skeleton that is exposed. Could think be causing the problem?

There also was a small green crab bothering it yesterday, but I moved the crab out of the way. The crab put a couple of black aragonite on the skeleton. I cleaned this out of the way as I ssumed this may have been causing irritation.

[TippyToeX]

Hmm.. that small red anemone could be an aiptasia. If so it could very well be the cause of the brain being in bad shape. Any chance of a picture? Do you know what aiptasia look like? If not here are some pictures..

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/15509aiptasia_pictures.jpg

The crab could also be the root of the brains tissues problem. Very glad that you got that little offender out of there.

Brains can recovery well IME. Good water quality and a few feedings a week with some chopped up meaty marine foods. :)

[coolhand2]

I carefully used Joe's juice to dispatch the anemone. Then I washed off the part of the skeleton by gently squirting water across it. I also decided to move the brain coral back to its original tank.

Although it is still lifted off the part of the skeleton, it seems to be doing better. It has expanded in size and had it polyps out this AM which is good. It's color is excellent as well. I will try to take a picture.