Can this Ricordea be saved?

[HybridOfHe]

I purchased a ricordea about three days ago. I'm guessing its a florida, not a yuma, I forgot to ask.

 

It was initially blue & green, but is currently mostly ice green. After placing it in the tank it was releasing some brownish stringy slime. Even with acclimating temperature and dripping, I think it got knocked around a little bit before being placed in the tank.

 

I didn't dip the coral because the last coral I got from my LFS was bug free. This was a mistake because I soon found a reddish worm on the top of the frag plug. I immediately removed it, it was very thin and long, I'm not sure what kind of parasite/bug it was. I usually dip with bayer's.

 

Since then the ric has been releasing clear stringy slime periodically. Its mouth would occasionally close up, but now it's wide open. It almost looks like I can see the top of the plug through the hole. Initially the ric was more spread out and now it seems to be lifting up or contracting a bit. It's pretty small, maybe 1/2 inch in diameter.

 

My water stats are generally good. Flow is low to low-medium at the ric's location.

Salinity around 1.025.

Phos & Nitrate very very low.

Calc around 400-450.

Mag around 1200.

 

I have an AI Prime around 25w at 14k in the day and 20k in the evening. Currently I keep the temperature between 81^o-82^oF . My frogspawn is doing fantastic, fully extended.

 

I'm wondering if there are any suggestions about if this ric can be rejuvenated.

 

I placed a cooling fan above the ric's location to provide some shade thinking it was getting bleached. I have yet to see if that is improving things.

 

I never thought I would be so saddened by a mostly inanimate animal ailing on me.

 

Latest photo:

 

[vision]

i have a very similar situation to yours...

 

one of the first corals i put in my tank was an orange ricordea. it sat directly underneath my light on the sand bed underneath a small overhang. during some rearranging of the hardscape; a baseball sized rock fell from above it the tip of it hit the fleshy edge of the ric. it did not look damaged at all, it retracted just a little bit, but looked normal.

 

the following week was a different story;

 

the rics health deteriorated very quickly. it's currently in the corner of the tank in the lowest flow & lowest light almost completely white and curled up. it has just a few specs of orange left on the outer edge. unfortunately, i don't think it will make it.

 

i've read the recovery of one of these guys is extremely long: sometimes upwards of 2-3 months to regain color and size.

 

we use the same light (ai prime). i don't know if that could possibly have something to do with it, but if it's worth mentioning it's on been an acclimation from 30->50% over the last 2 months. november 1st will end the light acclimation. i have two 2x2 monti, a birds nest, 2 head hammer coral about 4 inches across, a small torch, and various zoa's all that are doing very well. i use apex so my temp is always between 78-79F. sg 1.025. floating around 10 nitrates. i spot feed coral frenzy once a week. the ric always got really fluffy when coral frenzy was in the water column.

 

what i do know is that loss of color = loss of zooxanthellae. so maybe when a rock hit my ric... or when you removed the "reddish worm" as you described... it damaged the ric to expel the zooxanthellae and that put us in similar situations.

 

looking forward to hearing your feedback.

 

edit: pic

[SarlinDescent]

I have found that ricordea are basically impossible to kill. I had one fall I a crack and get buried with sand that was too deep to get out. 4-6 months later a white with faint orange ricordea appeared out of nowhere.

[Proudgeek]

This is a yuma though. The Florida ricordea are the more hardy ones I believe. I would put it in lower lighting and monitor.

[John L]

I bought a similar one ( approx 1 large and 3 small), the same happened to me no matter what i did. They expelled their zooxanthellae, turned white and kicked the bucket. a little one stayed alive and almost got a little colour back but then disappeared. Im no expert, i heard that they need very gentle light acclimation. Very gutting, sorry to hear that.

[HybridOfHe]

This is a yuma though. The Florida ricordea are the more hardy ones I believe. I would put it in lower lighting and monitor.

 

Thanks for all the input guys. I believe you are right that he was a yuma, now that I've more carefully studied the differences.

 

I did end up quickly moving him to lower lighting and my prime was already set on acclimation mode, but within 36 hours it was obvious he wasn't going to make it and started to melt away. I think he got bumped around to much during moving & acclimation, there was one spot that looked lightly damaged. The death destabilized my water params and I'm dealing with that now, but it's not too bad since I got him out in time. It was super depressing seeing a coral die and not knowing what else to do that could save it.

 

I'm trying to decide wether to have another go at it with a florida ric, or just make my tank all euphyllias, as my frogspawn is doing stupendously.... I'm unsure.

[Proudgeek]

 

Thanks for all the input guys. I believe you are right that he was a yuma, now that I've more carefully studied the differences.

 

I did end up quickly moving him to lower lighting and my prime was already set on acclimation mode, but within 36 hours it was obvious he wasn't going to make it and started to melt away. I think he got bumped around to much during moving & acclimation, there was one spot that looked lightly damaged. The death destabilized my water params and I'm dealing with that now, but it's not too bad since I got him out in time. It was super depressing seeing a coral die and not knowing what else to do that could save it.

 

I'm trying to decide wether to have another go at it with a florida ric, or just make my tank all euphyllias, as my frogspawn is doing stupendously.... I'm unsure.

Sorry to hear. I purchased a rock flower anemone yesterday and it's dying as i type

 

I say give the florida rics a go. I love mine (like 8 or 9) and you could not kill them with a hammer.

[Sancho]

Yumas do well in low light and dirty water and cooler temps. How often are you changing the water? Its odd but when I neglected my tank the bigger they got. when I was doing weekly water changes they looked kinda anemic. Mine grew like weeds with an AI prime @ 10-30% and monthly or even bi monthly water changes. The super sexy rainbow, pink and red Yumas I have had no luck with they seem to melt away pretty quick. That explains their high price. I lost most of my Yumas the beginning of this summer as my kid left the the shade open and they were getting direct sunlight and the tank was at 83*. They all bleached but one survived and is finally starting to color up. Its has already dropped a few babies. Here is a shot of my tank before they bleached and melted away.

[LazyFish]

The floridas are hard to kill. I literally (by mistake) tore one off a plug. Violently ripping its foot off. It healed in about 2 weeks & is growing well. I have never had any success with the yumas no mater how much I baby them.

[Sancho]

The floridas are hard to kill. I literally (by mistake) tore one off a plug. Violently ripping its foot off. It healed in about 2 weeks & is growing well. I have never had any success with the yumas no mater how much I baby them.

just the opposite here I can't keep a Florida for more than a year

[HybridOfHe]

Yumas do well in low light and dirty water and cooler temps. How often are you changing the water? Its odd but when I neglected my tank the bigger they got. when I was doing weekly water changes they looked kinda anemic. Mine grew like weeds with an AI prime @ 10-30% and monthly or even bi monthly water changes. The super sexy rainbow, pink and red Yumas I have had no luck with they seem to melt away pretty quick. That explains their high price. I lost most of my Yumas the beginning of this summer as my kid left the the shade open and they were getting direct sunlight and the tank was at 83*. They all bleached but one survived and is finally starting to color up. Its has already dropped a few babies. Here is a shot of my tank before they bleached and melted away.

 

Wow thats a beautiful yuma garden you had there. Thats terrible you lost it, windows can be evil when it comes to aquariums. My last FW aquarium was a algae farm for a while b/c of a little sunlight going near it.

 

I try to keep my tank pretty clean and have the LEDs relatively bright for my frogspawn. I don't have a skimmer but do 20-30% weekly water changes along with using floss, carbon, purigen, phosguard, bio rings, and extra live rock, in sump/media basket. The extra live rock is mainly in there for making frags or placing corals in the sand in the future.

 

I'll probably ease up on some of the fancy chemicals when my display tank macro-algae arrives. It's a "rare" red palm algae, there isn't much information about it out there, but I've read it doesn't attach itself to rock or substrate, which is a seems like a big plus.

 

I think I might give Ricordeas one more chance, they're just so uniquely beautiful. I'll make sure its a florida since they seem easier to keep and more appropriate for my tank parameters.

 

This time I'm going to let it hang out on its plug in the sand or balanced on a rock for 24-48 hours before I epoxy it down, I don't really feel like investing in a frag rack. That way I can judge it's health and preferred lighting and avoid tearing up my live rock again trying to get the frag plug + epoxy off. I guess I just got lucky with my frogspawn placement and lightning.

 

Thanks for all the input and personal stories!

[AWillroth]

FWIW, Rics seem to do horrible under LEDS, even when set low.