wellsophyllia not feeling so well

[chasesng]

in fact i can now see a little of its internal skeleton. i've only had it for around 5 weeks. first 3 weeks or so it would swell to double or triple its nitetime size. now it stays the same size nite and day.

no trace of nitrates,
alk at 8.6,
phosphates below .03ppm,
calcium around 420
all taken with salifert

only source of change was that i began with dosing of B-Ionic calcium buffer about 2 weeks ago. calcium was around 380 and wanted to raise it. then one of my clown's died and it happened to be the same fish that started to nuzzle around in the wellsophylia. next thing i know the wellsophyllia stops swelling and my coco worm stopped hanging outside his tube. its been almost a week since the coco has come out, altho wife says he came out for a while today.

any ideas?

 

[marrone]

Have you been feeding it?

 

[chasesng]

i didnt think he required direct feeding.

that having been said, we have sacrificed the turkey baster and tried on several occasions (since he stopped swelling) to squirt some food on him. no visible reaction tho

of note, coco worm has finally come out of his tube after about a week. dont know if there's a connection tween what scared coco and well, but i've got my fingers crossed.

maybe the perc was picking at the well

 

[marrone]

Try feeding it some pieces of shrimp,scalop, clam or squid. Wait until night, after the lights are out or just before they go out. The tentacles should be out at that point and then you can feed it.

 

[Reefer420]

i was just having a problem w/ my brain as well.. the ca and alk in my tank are low and I'm trying to raise them..

but I don't think thats teh problem.. for some reason it goes through periods of a week or so where it does not look good, but then will open right up and look better than ever for a long time...not sure what that means.

it fell on some zoos the other week and sat there (face down) all day until I got home... didn't look good for at least 3 weeks, but now opens up as normal!

 

[masterswimmer]

it fell on some zoos the other week and sat there (face down) all day until I got home... didn't look good for at least 3 weeks, but now opens up as normal!

If it fell on some zoos, that translates to being 'higher' than the zoos. Ideally, Wellsophyllia's should be on the sandbed. Unless you've got a raised sandbed, there really shouldn't be any way for the Wellso to fall.

That could be part of the reason yours isn't doing well. Relocate it to the sandbed and see how that works.

swimmer

 

[tomzpc]

My clowns stressed out my wellsophyllia big time before they moved onto hosting in my colt coral, so that may have something to do with it. It took awhile to recover.

You also didn't mention your lighting. These guys don't like strong light and they also should be down on the sand like Russ mentioned.

 

[Reefer420]

If it fell on some zoos, that translates to being 'higher' than the zoos. Ideally, Wellsophyllia's should be on the sandbed. Unless you've got a raised sandbed, there really shouldn't be any way for the Wellso to fall.

That could be part of the reason yours isn't doing well. Relocate it to the sandbed and see how that works.

swimmer

brilliant deduction watson! Just have to think about lighting- w/ PC lights the brain is doing fine in the middle of the tank... how do you think it would fare on the bottom?

 

[Reefer420]

My clowns stressed out my wellsophyllia big time before they moved onto hosting in my colt coral, so that may have something to do with it. It took awhile to recover.

You also didn't mention your lighting. These guys don't like strong light and they also should be down on the sand like Russ mentioned.

i thought that I had read that brains (except for trachs.) like medium-higher light levels??

 

[tomzpc]

i thought that I had read that brains (except for trachs.) like medium-higher light levels??

Platygyra(sp?), yes. Favia or Favites, sometimes. Wellsophyllia are more like Trachyphillia(they actually have been reclassified as trachs IIRC)though and don't care for strong light and should always be placed on the bed of the aquarium. Occasional feedings are beneficial and recommended but not always necessary.

 

[Reefer420]

Good to know - I feed mine often...maybe I'll move some zoos up higher and move the brain down lower...

 

[masterswimmer]

Good to know - I feed mine often...maybe I'll move some zoos up higher and move the brain down lower...

Good plan.
Tom recalls correctly, the genus (I think that's the level) was reclassified to Trachyphyllia a couple of years ago.
I have mine not only on the sandbed, but COMPLETELY shaded by a huge Sarcophyton directly above it. I'm running T5's and it has been doing great in that location.

Good luck with it. If you want me to post a pic of mine depicting location and appearance, JLMK.

swimmer

 

[chasesng]

Wellso update

As followup to my original issue and in case others are interested....i took over the baster feeding and put baster within quarter inch of wellso. Gave it some frozen brine shrimp. Within 3 or 4 hours it started puffing as if Pam Anderson had forfeited her botox. No more skeleton visible altho its not expanding its footprint terribly much like it used to.

Fed wellso same way again tonite and its even puffier. Hoping to see it get back to the expanded footprint but at least i'm not seeing its skeleton.

So thanks to all for comments.

PS..I use T5 lighting, the wellso is in the sandbed but not really shaded.

 

[masterswimmer]

Steve, great news. Congrats on nursing it back to health. You're not out of the woods yet, so keep it up, but sounds much better and hopeful than last week.

swimmer