Cynarina Wound Healing?

[Enad]

Hi all,

I've had a beautiful pink Cynarina coral for about 2 months now but it has always struggled. It's really the only coral in the tank that has issues.

I have it placed at the bottom of the tank, on the higher end of indirect moderate flow(changes throughout the day, I have an MP10 with a varied schedule), and lower end of the lighting spectrum being at the bottom of the tank. It's rare to see it fully puffed out.

Some days it looks better than others, but it often looks pretty rough. There's often a lot of 'gunk' building up on it, as well as what looks like algae growing in one particular spot. I believe that at one point the skeleton must've been exposed for a longer period of time and algae started to grow and now there's too much for the coral to properly heal itself. I'll attach a few pictures. It's the brownish mark on the bottom right of the coral.

Now, my question is how do I help this coral recover? I feed it twice a week, sometimes more. I gave it an external dip with Red Sea Dip a few weeks ago but it didn't seem to help anything. I really believe the main issue is the algae growing on it, but I have no idea how to help fix that.

Parameters have fluctuated mildly throughout its life in my tank, but as yesterday my parameters are..
Cal - 400
Mag - 1280
Alk - 9-10

Nitrate - 10-20
Phos - 0.01
Salinity - 1.025


I really want this coral to be happy, so any help would be appreciated!

 

[LPS Bum]

A dip in standard 3% hydrogen peroxide will take care of the algae issue. And any bacterial infections that the coral might be suffering from.

For Cynarinas, Acanthophyllia and Scolys I do 50/50 tank water to H2O2 in a separate container for 3-5 min. They can easily tolerate that concentration. Scrub the affected area gently with a toothbrush a few min into the dip and the algae will come right off. That’ll give the tissue a fighting chance to regrow over the exposed skeleton.

Then low light and low flow once it goes back in the tank. You can feed a couple of times a week with zooplankton for growth.

Lastly, keep an eye on that Flame Angel. They love to nip at fleshy LPS corals.

 

[Enad]

A dip in standard 3% hydrogen peroxide will take care of the algae issue. And any bacterial infections that the coral might be suffering from.

For Cynarinas, Acanthophyllia and Scolys I do 50/50 tank water to H2O2 in a separate container for 3-5 min. They can easily tolerate that concentration. Scrub the affected area gently with a toothbrush a few min into the dip and the algae will come right off. That’ll give the tissue a fighting chance to regrow over the exposed skeleton.

Then low light and low flow once it goes back in the tank. You can feed a couple of times a week with zooplankton for growth.

Lastly, keep an eye on that Flame Angel. They love to nip at fleshy LPS corals.

Thank you! I'll give it a hydrogen peroxide dip tomorrow, with the ratio you provided.

Any recommendations on the particular food for the Cynarina? I generally feed it ReefRoids or LRS Reef Frenzy. I also have some Mysis Feast.

Let me know! I want to take the best possible care of this one.


Thanks again.

 

[LPS Bum]

Thank you! I'll give it a hydrogen peroxide dip tomorrow, with the ratio you provided.

Any recommendations on the particular food for the Cynarina? I generally feed it ReefRoids or LRS Reef Frenzy. I also have some Mysis Feast.

Let me know! I want to take the best possible care of this one.


Thanks again.

Happy to help.

I feed all my Cynarinas (and Acanthophyllia and Scolys) Seachem Zooplankton. You can broadcast feed the tank or target feed with the pumps off. If you’re going to target feed, mix the zooplankton with tank water, as it’s pretty concentrated.

 

[Tcook]

Is it being stung by that bubble? They can throw out some pretty long sweepers.

 

[Enad]

Is it being stung by that bubble? They can throw out some pretty long sweepers.

This is actually a newer location for it, and it has been looking much happier than it has in awhile since moving it to this spot, so no I don't believe the Bubble is stinging it, though it's definitely something I've thought about as the Cynarina grows larger. I'll likely need to find it a better spot soon enough. Not a lot of real estate on the sand bed with two bubble corals.


I'll do the dip today and update this thread to let everyone know if I've seen an improvement.

 

[Tcook]

After the dip leave it be. I think you have done all you need to and more moving is more stress. As long as it’s getting around 80-100 par.

 

[AV corals]

Hi all,

I've had a beautiful pink Cynarina coral for about 2 months now but it has always struggled. It's really the only coral in the tank that has issues.

I have it placed at the bottom of the tank, on the higher end of indirect moderate flow(changes throughout the day, I have an MP10 with a varied schedule), and lower end of the lighting spectrum being at the bottom of the tank. It's rare to see it fully puffed out.

Some days it looks better than others, but it often looks pretty rough. There's often a lot of 'gunk' building up on it, as well as what looks like algae growing in one particular spot. I believe that at one point the skeleton must've been exposed for a longer period of time and algae started to grow and now there's too much for the coral to properly heal itself. I'll attach a few pictures. It's the brownish mark on the bottom right of the coral.

Now, my question is how do I help this coral recover? I feed it twice a week, sometimes more. I gave it an external dip with Red Sea Dip a few weeks ago but it didn't seem to help anything. I really believe the main issue is the algae growing on it, but I have no idea how to help fix that.

Parameters have fluctuated mildly throughout its life in my tank, but as yesterday my parameters are..
Cal - 400
Mag - 1280
Alk - 9-10

Nitrate - 10-20
Phos - 0.01
Salinity - 1.025


I really want this coral to be happy, so any help would be appreciated!

View attachment 3056592 View attachment 3056593

Your best bet is doing another Red Sea dip. I use this as well. Mix a cap of it with half a bucket of your tank water. Let it soak for 15 minutes. Then rinse it off in another bowl of your tank water before placing back into your tank. Then leave it be.
I’ve also found that direct feeding cynarias imo isn’t that good. I typically broadcast feed benepets twice weekly and that’ll do just fine. My cynarias love LOW flow. Literally almost no movement.
Another key takeaway I’ve noticed in your water params was your mag seems extremely low IMO. Cynarias and other meaty corals love higher mag levels. I keep mine around 1675.

best of luck. Here’s a pic of my two cynarias
Let me know if there’s anything else I can help with.

 

[Enad]

Your best bet is doing another Red Sea dip. I use this as well. Mix a cap of it with half a bucket of your tank water. Let it soak for 15 minutes. Then rinse it off in another bowl of your tank water before placing back into your tank. Then leave it be.
I’ve also found that direct feeding cynarias imo isn’t that good. I typically broadcast feed benepets twice weekly and that’ll do just fine. My cynarias love LOW flow. Literally almost no movement.
Another key takeaway I’ve noticed in your water params was your mag seems extremely low IMO. Cynarias and other meaty corals love higher mag levels. I keep mine around 1675.

best of luck. Here’s a pic of my two cynarias
Let me know if there’s anything else I can help with.

Thanks for the reply!

Do you recommend doing the Red Sea dip over the 50/50 Hydrogen Peroxide dip as recommended by LPS Bum?

As for the low flow, I've been trying to find a lower flow area for it but it's difficult in a smaller tank. Lots of the water flow bounces off the glass, causing a good flow of water over the sand bed. Plus, there's simply not that much sand bed, I have 2 really great, large pieces of live rock that take up much of the space. While I have it dipping, I'll try to find a more ideal spot to return it to.

As for the Mag, yes I've been working on increasing it. I've been using AllForReef which I generally like, but it has been causing my Alkalinity to rise much higher than my Cal and Mag. I'm currently letting my levels lower, and today I'm going to start manually dosing Mag and Cal. Last week I had perfect Cal and Mag(450 and 1600), but my Alkalinity went up to 12 so...gotta try to get the balance right.

Thanks!

 

[AV corals]

Thanks for the reply!

Do you recommend doing the Red Sea dip over the 50/50 Hydrogen Peroxide dip as recommended by LPS Bum?

As for the low flow, I've been trying to find a lower flow area for it but it's difficult in a smaller tank. Lots of the water flow bounces off the glass, causing a good flow of water over the sand bed. Plus, there's simply not that much sand bed, I have 2 really great, large pieces of live rock that take up much of the space. While I have it dipping, I'll try to find a more ideal spot to return it to.

As for the Mag, yes I've been working on increasing it. I've been using AllForReef which I generally like, but it has been causing my Alkalinity to rise much higher than my Cal and Mag. I'm currently letting my levels lower, and today I'm going to start manually dosing Mag and Cal. Last week I had perfect Cal and Mag(450 and 1600), but my Alkalinity went up to 12 so...gotta try to get the balance right.

Thanks!

In this particular case, when this happens, you need to buy mag and dose mag separately along with AFR. All-for- Reef is basically a all in one that keeps the exact levels where you want it to be. When I used this, I would also dose red sea alk, mag and cal until my levels were exactly where I wanted them to be, then I would just dose All for reef which would keep everything streamlined.

Hope this tip helped!

 

[exnisstech]

As suggested I would keep an eye on the flame angel.

Also you may want to find a spot and just leave it be and let it settle in. Corals don't like to be handled a lot. This is where mine stays. It's elevated a bit on skeleton so doesn't sit flat on the bottom (barebottom) but it doesn't seem to mind.

 

[Enad]

So I did the dip this morning, with a slightly lower ratio of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide. Probably 60/40, and it seems to have gone very poorly.

It was only in the dip for about 2 minutes but it quickly looked like it was dying once I put it back in the tank. The mouth bubbled up for a while, and the skin looks like it is rotting away. It's been about 8 hours now and it looks like it's a goner.

I'm really not sure what I did wrong here but I'm definitely bummed. It was a beautiful creature.

I'm leaving it in the tank to see in case there's any hope of it bouncing back but it looks pretty far gone to me. Please weigh in if anyone here feels differently.

 

[LPS Bum]

So I did the dip this morning, with a slightly lower ratio of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide. Probably 60/40, and it seems to have gone very poorly.

It was only in the dip for about 2 minutes but it quickly looked like it was dying once I put it back in the tank. The mouth bubbled up for a while, and the skin looks like it is rotting away. It's been about 8 hours now and it looks like it's a goner.

I'm really not sure what I did wrong here but I'm definitely bummed. It was a beautiful creature.

I'm leaving it in the tank to see in case there's any hope of it bouncing back but it looks pretty far gone to me. Please weigh in if anyone here feels differently.

I wouldn't count it out just yet. I've dipped a lot of corals in H202, including Cynarinas, and I have never seen a coral look good right after the dip. Typically they look very shrunken (flesh drawn in tight against the skeleton) and pretty ticked off for a couple of days, but come back to normal (puffy and fat) after 48-72 hours.

I'm assuming you only dipped for a few minutes, right? A 60/40 tank water to H202 ratio should be well tolerated by a Cynarina, but it's going to be angry for a little while after you put it back in the tank.

The photos you posted look very normal (post dip) to me. Give it a few days in low light and low flow and see what happens. And keep a close eye on that Flame Angel. They are notorious LPS nippers.

 

[OrchidMiss]

I wouldn't count it out just yet. I've dipped a lot of corals in H202, including Cynarinas, and I have never seen a coral look good right after the dip. Typically they look very shrunken (flesh drawn in tight against the skeleton) and pretty ticked off for a couple of days, but come back to normal (puffy and fat) after 48-72 hours.

I'm assuming you only dipped for a few minutes, right? A 60/40 tank water to H202 ratio should be well tolerated by a Cynarina, but it's going to be angry for a little while after you put it back in the tank.

The photos you posted look very normal (post dip) to me. Give it a few days in low light and low flow and see what happens. And keep a close eye on that Flame Angel. They are notorious LPS nippers.

 

[Enad]

I wouldn't count it out just yet. I've dipped a lot of corals in H202, including Cynarinas, and I have never seen a coral look good right after the dip. Typically they look very shrunken (flesh drawn in) and pretty ticked off for a couple of days, but come back to normal after 48-72 hours.

The photos you posted look very normal (post dip) to me. Give it a few days in low light and low flow and see what happens. And keep a close eye on that Flame Angel. They are notorious LPS nippers.

Well thank you for the response. I'll be holding out hope for it. It certainly looks really bad.


As for the Flame Angel, yes I've been keeping an eye on it. So far, it hasn't really caused any problems but I'm still thinking of swapping it out for something safer. It's new to the tank and has been a wonderful addition, bringing so much energy and movement to the tank. It causes all the other fish to swim around much more too. Not to mention being a beautiful fish. A shame that it has those troublesome tendencies.

I know this isn't the right thread to ask but do you have any recommendations for similarly active and beautiful fish that would live well in a 27 Gal Penninsula? Besides the Flame Angel, it's just two clowns and a blue damsel.

 

[LPS Bum]

Well thank you for the response. I'll be holding out hope for it. It certainly looks really bad.


As for the Flame Angel, yes I've been keeping an eye on it. So far, it hasn't really caused any problems but I'm still thinking of swapping it out for something safer. It's new to the tank and has been a wonderful addition, bringing so much energy and movement to the tank. It causes all the other fish to swim around much more too. Not to mention being a beautiful fish. A shame that it has those troublesome tendencies.

I know this isn't the right thread to ask but do you have any recommendations for similarly active and beautiful fish that would live well in a 27 Gal Penninsula? Besides the Flame Angel, it's just two clowns and a blue damsel.

There’s a great thread on Reef 2 Reef about H202 dipping. Good video presentation by the author. You should be able to find it with a quick search. Cynarinas and Scolys can handle a pretty big dose of H202. Might give you some peace of mind to watch it.

As for fish, even the “reef safe” ones can sometimes go rogue. I only have big tanks so I’m not the best person to advise you on fish for smaller tanks. But I do know I’d never trust an Angel of any kind with a fleshy LPS coral.

 

[LPS Bum]

There’s a great thread on Reef 2 Reef about H202 dipping. Good video presentation by the author. You should be able to find it with a quick search. Cynarinas and Scolys can handle a pretty big dose of H202. Might give you some peace of mind to watch it.

As for fish, even the “reef safe” ones can sometimes go rogue. I only have big tanks so I’m not the best person to advise you on fish for smaller tanks. But I do know I’d never trust an Angel of any kind with a fleshy LPS coral.

FYI, here's the video I was talking about (scroll about 1/3 of the way down the page, and you can fast forward to the 52 min mark where Justin talks about having to really give it to LPS corals with the H202).

Peroxide dipping guidelines (for corals)

A while back Justin Credabel published this chart detailing the concentration of hydrogen peroxide appropriate for dipping various genera of corals. I've used these guidelines myself a few times to remove algae from coral frags and it's been quite effective. Justin Credabel's hydrogen...

humble.fish

You'll see some pics (and first hand accounts) of newly dipped corals, and they all look very similar to yours. Angry and shrunken after the dip, but they recovered. Hoping it turns out well for you. I love my Cynarinas too.