Is this a lot cause?

[fxman]

I bought this last November. It was on the down slide then and I got busy and let it deteriorate even more. I figured it would eventually die, but it won't. There is about 12 heads and about 3 still have small mouths. They will inflate every day, not enough to completly fill the head. I have not seen tenacles but I try to target feed it every day. My question is, is it worth it to try to keep this alive as a candy cane. If not I have another idea for the skeleton. Once the ones with mouths get healty will the others that are bare fill in. There is a lot of seperation between heads. If the answer is yes. Any advanced treatments and how long until it is again the show piece it could be.

Thanks

 

[spanko]

bump

[circusordie16]

what happened to it that caused such a downslide? candy canes should survive with just lighting and no feeding. i dont think its a lost cause though, maybe move it up in the tank so it gets some more light and keep trying to feed it and it should come back. as for the skeleton, nothing will grow on the dead stems (candy canes grow by splitting existing heads) but if you want to remove some parts of it you can just cut the dead skeleton off leaving about an inch below the living heads. wait until after its recovered to do that though. good luck.

[spanko]

OK, target feed once per week with the flow off in your tank for about 1/4-1/2 hour. Keep any shrimp from picking the food out. Keep it in moderate light and moderate to low flow. I had a pc the I accidently moved to a high flow area and in one day noticed the tissue regression, moved it and it came back. The heads that have no tissue will not come back IME and should be "pruned" away.

Good luck with it and keep us posted.

[nano-paul]

Aiptasia control or joes juice, maybe peppermint shrimp. They are the reason it died. I cant believe nobody saw those.....

[circusordie16]

Aiptasia control or joes juice, maybe peppermint shrimp. They are the reason it died. I cant believe nobody saw those.....

 

where did you see those?

 

edit: haha now i see those. yeah get rid of those or it wont come back. be careful not to hurt the candy cane further while removing the aiptasia

[spanko]

Good eye nano-paul. See the Aiptasia coming off of the back top left edge of the colony and the one on the right top front edge?

[fxman]

Yeah,

I have a bad out break of it right now. I have bought Joe's juice and a peppermint shrimp. The Joe's juice scares me because no matter how careful I was it seemed to just run out of the tip onto other stuff. (Yes I turned off the flow). My peppermint shrimp died about 2 weeks after I got it. My salinity got high due to some bad water from the LFS, I think that's what did him in. I have 3 of them coming in Tuesday. I got it back stable so hopfully that will do the trick.

I know this won't be the popular decision but I would rather have the skeleton in one piece for something else instead of destroying it to save 3 heads. I already have a small 2 head doing well. I was hoping this one wa able to fill back in since it is such a nice piece. Next question, how can I get the rest to die off. I am going to attach either an aray of zoos, yellow polyps or pom-pom xenia to it to make a cool half circle piece.

Thanks

[circusordie16]

why not just cut the skeleton a little bit below the remaining heads. if there are only 3 then you wont be destroying the whole skeleton so you can still use it for other things.