Brown crap on my coral!

[Big K]

Hey, Peeps!

I found this brown crap growing on my cup coral this morning and cleaned it off, only to have it back worse when I got home from work tonight. When I cleaned it off before (with a baster) the heads underneath came off as well.



What do I do? Help me, Living Reefs, you're my only hope!

 

[Dannyrb26]

brown jelly disease maybe?

 

[RockStacker]

Is it covering only that coral? or do you see it in other areas as well?
If it is only on that coral then it could be brown jelly.

 

[Big K]

Only the cup/pagoda coral. As far as I can see. I cleaned it off and thought it was bleached out underneath but realized it was it's skeleton after touching it.

 

[Dannyrb26]

sounds like ur coral is a goner sorry bud

 

[RockStacker]

Try taking out the coral and do a coral dip.
You may need to do it several times.

 

[Big K]

It's pretty secure in my tank and about 80% gone at this point. After two days it hasn't gotten worse after I scraped and siphoned off all the dead flesh. Did a water change and pointed a power head at it to keep gunk from settling on it. Fingers crossed!

If it does recover, will it grow back over the old skeleton?

 

[RockStacker]

If it does recover, will it grow back over the old skeleton?

Yes. Most colonial type LPS really just use the built up skeleton as a substrate to grow on.
As they grow, they form the grooves and ridges that follow the polyps' shape, but they build up and leave the old layers of skeleton under them.

There are exceptions to this, as some species form a network of interconnecting tissue inside the skeleton.