Feeding Acans

[TJ_Burton]

I have inherited about 6-8 withering colonies of Acanthastrea and am attempting to restore them back to their former glory. They are all pretty shabby looking and receded, breaks my heart really. Last night after introducing them to the aquarium and after the lights went out, they immediately went into "Feeding Mode" sending out their cute little frill of tentacles. I assume that this is a good sign.

 

Now,

 

What I would like to know is what is a good source of food for these Acans? I have Mysis, but am not sure if that will be too large. I can easily get brine shrimp as well, but may have a harder time finding cyclopeeze. Also was wondering if any sort of special consideration should go into the care/feeding of these acans as they have been slowly receding/starving over the last several months. I will attach pics shortly to show you what I mean about their shabby condition.

[andrewkw]

cyclopeeze is the best, the frozen kind not the freeze dried. You can feed them every day for best results.

 

They will eat mysis too but keep in mind it will take them a long time to eat them so the pumps will have to be off for several hours. I find early in the morning is the best time for feeding. A few hours after the lights are off they will be really extended.

 

You can also try blending misc seafood, shrimp, smelt whatever, they eat everything meaty, even flake food. Depending on how big the polyps are you can cut the mysis as well.

 

6-8 colonies will take a while to feed. If you feed them well they should all recover. In november I bought a dying aussie colony for $40 it only had about 5-6 full polyps and some half ones that were really stressed out and dying, now those half polyps are full and there are 20-30 baby polyps just waiting to suck down enough cyclopeeze to grow up.

[TJ_Burton]

cyclopeeze is the best, the frozen kind not the freeze dried. You can feed them every day for best results.

 

They will eat mysis too but keep in mind it will take them a long time to eat them so the pumps will have to be off for several hours. I find early in the morning is the best time for feeding. A few hours after the lights are off they will be really extended.

 

You can also try blending misc seafood, shrimp, smelt whatever, they eat everything meaty, even flake food. Depending on how big the polyps are you can cut the mysis as well.

 

6-8 colonies will take a while to feed. If you feed them well they should all recover. In november I bought a dying aussie colony for $40 it only had about 5-6 full polyps and some half ones that were really stressed out and dying, now those half polyps are full and there are 20-30 baby polyps just waiting to suck down enough cyclopeeze to grow up.

 

Thanks for the quick response. I will do what I must with what I have until I can get some cyclopeeze. Hopefully my colonies fair as well as yours did. Do you think Daphnia or Baby Brine could be used as a substitute for the cyclopeeze?

[andrewkw]

Thanks for the quick response. I will do what I must with what I have until I can get some cyclopeeze. Hopefully my colonies fair as well as yours did. Do you think Daphnia or Baby Brine could be used as a substitute for the cyclopeeze?

 

Where in Canada are you? If you can't find it locally I know of a couple places that ship J&L aquatics being one.

 

Do you culture Daphnia? anything is a good food they aren't picky but I have no experience with them. I do know brine is less nutritious then mysis. The only time I ever use brine is when new fish won't eat anything else. PE Mysis is by far the best choice. They are large so you may have to chop them.

 

One thing I've noticed lately is they don't seem to catch any prey themselves. I was looking at mine in the middle of the night the other day when I was awake and there was dozens of pods crawling over them. I'm surprised none were getting caught in the tentacles.

[fiction101]

Giving them good lighting and lots of blue actinic is the best way to bring it back.

[circusordie16]

id say go with mysis although pretty much anything should do the job. ive found my lps like meaty foods like krill or mysis. also, with mysis or krill i dont see a need to turn off the pumps, as soon as the krill hits the tentacles they grab it tight and theres no way the flow will take it away. acans are pretty resilient, some regular feeding and good light should bring it back pretty quickly.

[TJ_Burton]

Thanks for the responses!

Here are some pics outlining the poor state of these acans. (more flattering pics will be in my 40br thread)

[The Nomad]

id say go with mysis although pretty much anything should do the job. ive found my lps like meaty foods like krill or mysis. also, with mysis or krill i dont see a need to turn off the pumps, as soon as the krill hits the tentacles they grab it tight and theres no way the flow will take it away. acans are pretty resilient, some regular feeding and good light should bring it back pretty quickly.

 

Good info here

Just feed them regularly( I target fed every 2 or 3 days. Early on with cyclops, later with squid or mysis)

 

Here's something similar of mine-

Early October I think-

 

 

Recently-

 

I did have to isolate them though, I put them in one of those plexi breeding containers.

Good luck!

[circusordie16]

those acans dont look too bad. theres a lot of skeleton but the remaining polyps look fairly healthy. nothing some good light, water, and food cant fix. good luck!

[TJ_Burton]

those acans dont look too bad. theres a lot of skeleton but the remaining polyps look fairly healthy. nothing some good light, water, and food cant fix. good luck!

 

Thanks once again folks for all the feedback!

I will keep you updated on how they are doing.

[SPS20]

I feed all my faviids a mix of mysis, cyclop-eeze, formula1, and selcon, mashed into a paste. I squirt a little bit into each polyp every night with an eyedropper. I turn the pumps off for 15 min or so to give them a chance to swallow it all the way (hard to grab onto a paste and keep it from washing away). This works equally well for favias as it does for acans. Really, for all practical purposes an acan is just a really colorful favia, at least in terms of care.

 

They may be expensive as hell, but they are really easy to take care of.

[TJ_Burton]

Ok,

 

Question: If you take a look at the acans, the remaining rock or skeleton around the healthy tissue is covered in algae as well as some other nasties I haven't identified (try to post pics of those things later) along with cyanobacteria. Would it be wise to use a course brush to scrub the rock around the tissue as clean as possible? I can see a tad of aptasia and some sort of other weird polyp/anemone.

 

If you take a look near the bottom of THIS page, I have some more shots of the acans with a better camera.

[ThatsFishy69]

do what im doing right now for that problem. get a turkey baster and blow it away. its working great for me.

[TJ_Burton]

do what im doing right now for that problem. get a turkey baster and blow it away. its working great for me.

 

Not sure if I can blow away the weird polyps/anemones or hair algae (which is my main concern). But I usually siphon out the cyano with airline tubing instead of just blowing it around the tank. Thanks for the suggestion though

[circusordie16]

i dont think scrubbing it is necessary although id remove any weird polyps or aiptasia and pull off the hair algae. i think the acans will just grow over anything else.

[TJ_Burton]

i dont think scrubbing it is necessary although id remove any weird polyps or aiptasia and pull off the hair algae. i think the acans will just grow over anything else.

 

Pulling off the hair algae isn't an option, its very short and dense. I would have to spend hours on end trying to rid one colony of this algae, which is why I opted for scrubbing. So removal of the algae and anemone/polyps is the best route to go from what I am understanding.

[ericdamangus]

Hey I'm glad I found this forum. I am also trying to bring some acans back to health. Mine are very sick, or in bad shape. I bought them online and received them like this so they gave me a refund. I think they can be cured just because they are still eating. I know they don't look like lords, but they are! As you can see on the bottom of the rock, in the yellow circle i drew, you can see where the coral looks partially normal. Any advice on how to nurse these back to the beauty they are capable of would be great.

 

Thanks!

 

[abe]

I have inherited about 6-8 withering colonies of Acanthastrea and am attempting to restore them back to their former glory. They are all pretty shabby looking and receded, breaks my heart really. Last night after introducing them to the aquarium and after the lights went out, they immediately went into "Feeding Mode" sending out their cute little frill of tentacles. I assume that this is a good sign.

 

Now,

 

What I would like to know is what is a good source of food for these Acans? I have Mysis, but am not sure if that will be too large. I can easily get brine shrimp as well, but may have a harder time finding cyclopeeze. Also was wondering if any sort of special consideration should go into the care/feeding of these acans as they have been slowly receding/starving over the last several months. I will attach pics shortly to show you what I mean about their shabby condition.

i believe acans also eat phytoplankton. whenever i feed my acans phyto, they open huge. mysis is not too large either, because i tried mysis on monday, and they gobbled it up. good luck with your acans, would be a shame if they died

[kgehrke]

I have a few one polyp frags and i physically feed them a baby mysis by putting it in their mouth. I usually feed them cyclo though.