I have had this brain for about a month. It did well...or seemed to be fine till about 2-3 days ago. Then I noticed that the flesh was disappearing and the skeleton was poking through today it looks like this (see below). My water is good. I noticed the degeneration after putting a large chalice frag into the tank. I read they can be agressive so I made sure to leave 2-3 inches between it and others. I had to move the brain a bit to put in the chalice frag, could that of damaged the coral that badly? After i noticed the coral degenerating i moved it out of direct light (a 400w MH 14k) into a bit of shade and pointed a powerhead at it. Any ideas what could be wrong? I have not seen any creatures eating the coral...there are some bristle worms around it but i dont think they would cause a problem. http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b169/Photo_John/sick.jpg

i am not much on LPS, but what are the tank parameters ?? looks like the degeneration in pretty scattered around so i doubt it is from lighting or flow. what other corals are around it ??

here is a basic layout of the right lower side of the tank.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b169/Photo_John/layoutpsd.jpg
i have now moved the damaged/degenerating coral to the other side of the larger brain. The larger brain almost totally died in a tank crash long ago and is still regrowing over old skeletons, i cant see any degeneration with it. I did touch the degenerating coral to move it away from the chalice, down and further to the front of the tank before the degeneration occured. could that have damaged it so throughly?

in case u cant tell it is 2in to the leather and 3in to both brains

my water is good. ph 8.2ish everything else zero or there abouts. My sps corals are doing fine on the other side of the tank, heck everyone else looks fine except for him.

i am wondering if there could have been something on your hand when you moved the brain ?? at first i was thinking something nearby had long sweeper tentacles for feeding, but as far as i know none of the corals listed do.

it is possible...if that was the issue is there anything I could do? I dont usually wear cologne on my wrists but who knows what might have gotten on my hands if anything. At any rate i moved the chalice frag to my nano where it could be away from other corals. I moved the chalice because I noticed the finger leather drooping. That alarmed me so until further notice the chalice is exciled to the nano. The brain is still degenerating...more skeleton each day. I hope I dont lose this guy, I hate when creatures die!

i would try an Iodine/Lugols bath on it ASAP. Iodine does the same thing for corals as it does for humans when we go to the hospital with cuts. try that and see what happens.

sadly I dont have any in my possession at the moment and will have to wait untill wed for my LFS to open...or will any old Iodine work (like from walmart)? This will be a first for me. How much per gallon? I assume u dip it in a bucket for 20 min or so?

i would wait. i am not sure on the regular store bought Iodine.

if your bottle contains these then i would use it, if not then i would wait ...

deionized water, potassium iodide, and iodine ... that is what my Lugols dip contains.

You may be able to find it at the drug store.

Along the same lines of discussion, I have an SPS-dominated tank, with the appropriate low nutrient levels. However, I do have a few LPS and used to have a couple softies. My softies died out (or almost), and my LPs never do too well, including a "closed" brain. I was told by a LFS guy that this is not uncommon in a SPS tank, since the softies and LPS require higher nutrients. So maybe if the parameters are perfect for SPS, they are not so perfect for LPS. Just a thought.
Jay

the few LPS that are in my SPS tank are doing excellent. i have a tongue, lobo, rics, and zoas that are all growing like there is no tomorrow, and my SPS are growing like weeds too.