Please help! Fuzzy mushroom fading

[justanotherfishhead]

I got this fuzzy mushroom about three weeks ago. It was doing well, then this past week I noticed it turning white. Last weekend I moved around rocks to get out one that had a hair algae problem, and I accidentally knocked some rocks over and one fell on the coral. But it looked fine for a few days after that. Another thing, it may have been a coincidence but I ordered a bunch of snails around the time it started to look bad. I don't suppose that the snails could have carried a disease or something? You can see them in the second pic when it was still looking good. The third pic was taken tonight. This morning when I did my water change I moved it higher up in the tank - it was on the bottom and now it's mid level. I thought maybe it needed more light but today it has gotten worse. Maybe it needs less light? Everything else in the tank looks great, including the few zoas I got. My tank has been going for 3.5 months. Amm, nitrate, phosphate all tested 0. PH may be low, I think it's about 8 but I need to get a new test, it's hard to read my API test. Alkalinity is only 7, I'm worried about that. I have not fed it anything, should I be doing that? LFS guy told me I didn't need to. The only other thing I can think of is that my peppermint shrimp was poking around all over it a few days ago and made it close up, but a few hours later it came out again. I didn't think the shrimp would hurt it though. Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.

Doing well a week after I got it:

This last Wednesday night:

Tonight:

 

[jarock]

Mine did that to sometimes up to a week then went back to normal, something must have just irritated momentarily it should be fine , i remember when mine did that for the first time i thought it was dieing but went back to normal after a week maybe even a little bit longer sometimes. My peppermint shrimp used to crawl on them to and my leather and would make them close for days at a time i don't think they hurt them i know my peppermint shrimp never just crawled on them and after a while they would open up and be happy.

 

[little_fish]

those guys are impossible to kill, it might just be changing because its under different lighting. not something to worry about :)

 

[justanotherfishhead]

Thanks for the reassurances, I guess maybe I overreacted cause this is my first coral (with the zoas) and I'm afraid of doing something wrong. If you think a coral is not happy in its current location, how long do you wait before trying a new spot?

 

[justanotherfishhead]

One more question - Little Fish, I think you said before that most corals don't need to be fed directly, is that true with this fuzzy mushroom also?

 

[marcah]

they will recieve their nutrition directly from through photosynthesis but you can feed them small meaty foods such as mysis..

 

[chuck78]

I wouldn't worry, They're pretty hardy.

 

[little_fish]

Depends on the coral, i usually give them a week in a location and then move them, unless its pretty clear they dislike those conditions (ie LPS in too high flow area)

 

[sen5241b]

Your chems sound fine. I have seen rocks fall on a coral and damage or tear the flesh which gets infected and then necrosis begins. Look carefully for signs of an infection like a retracted, dis-colored area that seems to be expanding each day. If you think its necrosis, then dip the coral and maybe cut out the infected part. But necrosis can be very difficult to battle.

I had a blue damsel that killed my large green plate by dropping rocks on it.

 

[justanotherfishhead]

Your chems sound fine. I have seen rocks fall on a coral and damage or tear the flesh which gets infected and then necrosis begins. Look carefully for signs of an infection like a retracted, dis-colored area that seems to be expanding each day. If you think its necrosis, then dip the coral and maybe cut out the infected part. But necrosis can be very difficult to battle.

I had a blue damsel that killed my large green plate by dropping rocks on it.

I don't see anything like that. One of the heads (or whatever you call it) on the rock is really turning white, and another one is starting to turn white. But I don't see anything other than the color change, and all of them seem to be smaller than before. Hopefully it just needs more light and I'll give it a week or so at this new higher placement to see if that helps. I can't imagine it's getting too much light because I only have 166w on this 55 gal tank.

Thanks everyone for your input.