waltercat

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My super healthy and large softie that I grew from almost nothing took a quick turn for the worst. I thought it was just sliming, but then it started to look like this. Is there anything I can do or should I try to cut out as much of the dying tissue and soak in lugols?
 

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waltercat

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It definitely didn't get stung. It's tough to see in the image, but the yellow parts near the head is not external skin. It's as if the external skin has melted off and that yellow part is the inside of the coral.
 

Dre

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Yes, but they are very, very far away from this coral.
How did i know that? Tentacles from frog's spawn and such get damaged by fish or simply fall off into the current once in a while unfortunately land on other corals. Leather corals/softies rarely recover once stung especially if stung on the crown or on a branch. The poison travel through like snake venom destroying tissue as it passes through the body which is like a sponge. That being said some softies/leathers are more resilient to these stings. Unfortunately yours seem to be a goner.
 

waltercat

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I guess theoretically a polyp from an LPS could have fallen off and hit the coral, but it seems unlikely due to placement.

Also, the coral grew so large it hit the surface of the tank. I adjusted it so it was fully submerged, but maybe that brief period of air exposure did it.

I am going to cut out as much of the necrotic flesh and maybe I can salvage the base.

It handled a much less severe surgery a year ago and grew back, maybe it will happen again. Either way getting the dying flesh out of there will prevent any downward spiral in the tank.

Such a bummer... thanks all for the advice.
 

Dre

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I don't want to sound like i'm beating a dead horse. I'm sure you have water movement in your tank. Post a full tank pic.
 
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Have you try to soak this softy in the saltwater Viagra mix? It might do a magic trick and turn softy in to a hard coral. LOL. Don't do it. On the serious note I had the same issue with the leather coral when I had a hummer coral in my tank. Both corals live together for a few years and then I added Angel fish that start picking on my hummer. In a week or two my leather coral shrank and then dyed. It looked exactly the same as your picture. I guess the secretion from the hummer when it bothered had killed my softy. If you have nothing to loose than move softy as far away as possible from your LPS and place it in the tank the way that current hits the softy first before it hit the LPS. This way the ripped LPS tentacles will not end-up on your softy. Good luck.
 
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theMeat

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All good suggestions, many possible culprits.
Maybe pest like flat worm or some other evasive critter
Maybe one of your supposed reef safe fish or critters not so reef safe
Maybe parameters not in check or stable.
Maybe a small hard to detect long term issue that has gotten it's first victim
 

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