I think my toadstool is dying...

[bigbills]

I did a routine water change about a week ago, and it closed up. It hasn't reopened since, and is starting to slump over. I tested my water last night, and everything checked out fine:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
ph 8.0
Temp 81
Salinity 1.021
I know the temp is a little high, but its always been like that.
What should I do?

 

[omen nemzo]

Did you maybe add something to the tank? I would think if you do another water change it may help but with out pics and more info I dont think we will really be about to tell. hope it comes back for you, oh do you have any other corals? if so how do they look?

 

[bigbills]

I added a new fish when I did the water change. He had been in quarrantine for three weeks.
I have several other corals: leathers, mushrooms, zoanthids, a brain, trumpet coral, some frogspawn. Everything else looks okay.
I don't have a picture, and won't be able to get one until tonight, but I'll try to do that.
The only other thing I noticed is that there seems to be some very small and thin brown "stringy things" coming out of the rock the toadstool is attached to. It did occur to me that it could be some kind of worm. I'll try to get a picture of them, but I don't know if it'll come out.

 

[bigbills]

Before my water change last Wednesday:

It started to shoot its polyps back out while I was taking pictures tonight:

You can kind of see the small tentacle looking things coming out of the rock it is attached to. I have no idea what they are. Does anyone else? Should I try to get rid of them? How?

 

[bigbills]

I've got some good news. I checked on my toadstool this morning before I came in to work, and it was shedding and had about half of its polyps halfway out. I think it might make it. I'm going to try to get to the store today and pick up some more carbon. I've heard you should use it when your corals are shedding.

 

[omen nemzo]

Glad to hear its looking better, keep us updated on how its doing and put some pics up once its starts looking better. Did you ever happen to find out what was happening to it? Only thing i could really think of was maybe the water temp was diffrernt then that of the tank, or maybe u changed salts but you didnt say anything about that so i ruled it out

 

[petjunkie]

Leathers will sometimes slump over and look terrible, also my toadstool will close up for weeks at a time if placed in low flow. As long as they don't start turning black or falling apart I leave it be.

 

[bigbills]

Originally Posted by omen nemzo
http:///forum/post/2662286
Glad to hear its looking better, keep us updated on how its doing and put some pics up once its starts looking better. Did you ever happen to find out what was happening to it? Only thing i could really think of was maybe the water temp was diffrernt then that of the tank, or maybe u changed salts but you didnt say anything about that so i ruled it out
It is doing much better, I'll try and get another picture tonight.
I believe it was just shedding. I think I read somewhere that they tend to do that when they are stressed, which could have been caused by the water change.
Since you mentioned changing salts, I think I may have done that. I did buy more and use it on that water change, and when I bought it I couldn't remember which salt I had used before. So, I may have inadvertantly changed salts...

 

[omen nemzo]

yeah that was the only thing i could think og, so maybe it just went into shock due to the new salt but if its doing better then i would just keep with the salt you have now just so something like this does happen again. but im glad to hear its doing better