Bubble coral going south? UPDATE - LOOKING GOOD!

[Bill S]

OK, I've had this ugly brown bubble coral for about 8 months. Bought it from Louis and it was about the size of a racquet ball. It grew to about half the size of a bowling balll (HUGE). It's been in the big tank for a couple of months, sitting on the sand. All of a sudden, it's shrunk up to the size of a baseball. All deflated. I can see what looks like a bristle worm under it, but I'm thinking it's just hanging out? It looks VERY unhappy. Anyone have any thoughts? Everything else is doing fine. Chemistry is just fine.

I'm going to do a lugols dip/wash based on what I found here:

http://famamagazine.com/FAMA/detail.aspx?aid=26585&cid=4262&search=

[GaryP]

Are you feeding it? Krill or silversides are good.

[Bill S]

Yeah. But, this is WAY beyond feeding. It's really, really, ugly. It's gone down hill from a 10 out of 10 to a 1 out of 10 in 48 hours.

[cpreefguy]

make sure its not in too much flow

[Bill S]

Actually, I thought it wasn't in enough (it has always liked some flow), so I added a small power head...

[GaryP]

Bingo! We have a winner.

[Bill S]

Looks better this am after the dip, and I moved it. Not great at all, but at least a few of the bubbles have extended.

[Bill S]

This afternoon it's looking even better. But still not very good. But at least it looks like it has a chance to survive...

[GaryP]

Did you turn off the power head?

[Bill S]

Nope. Not looking as good as earlier, but he's in the "night" part of the thank right now.

[gcantu]

I have a bubble that I purchased back in 2000 and it was the size of a golf ball. Now it is about the size of a baseball glove when extended and tends to do the things you described: shrinking and looking awful. It does this every so often when it is about to excrete any sort of waste. It also does this after it eats things like the leftover outer shells when my shrimp molt or if it eats squid. It generally likes a low flow because that is when the bubbles inflate and the sweeper tentacles tend to extend all over the place. If nothing is bothering it then I would say it is normal, but if things are out of wack then just make sure to fix them.

My $0.02

[Bill S]

This poor thing is really not well... It's sloughing off tissue. I just dipped it again - there are what look like healthy spots on it. I'm thinking that I have "brown jelly" infection, that's why I've dipped it. I probably should have done it again last night instead of waiting until today.

[Bill S]

Just an update on this. MAN I thought it was a goner for sure. I dipped it for 5 minutes every night for 5 days in 8 drops Lugols/liter. I shook it like a dog in the water, and massive amounts of gunk just dropped off of it. It was down to mostly "shell" on Sunday. Since the last dip on Monday, it's looking GREAT. I mean, GREAT. Big bubbles are back, it's back to about 1/2 of it's pre-disease state. I'm ASTOUNDED that this thing survived. It was definately a "brown jelly disease" thing. I would have given it a 1 in a 100 chance of making it on Friday and Saturday.