LITTLEFISHEE Posted July 19, 2003 Share Posted July 19, 2003 Every time I buy a ricordia, within a few months it dies. I've tried blue, green and orange. They will keep and thrive long enough for some to start growing two mouths, but that is all. They usually detach, won't reattach to anything, and are too shriveled to sew. Eventually, they turn into a brown smelly blob. The wierdest thing is that when it happens, my water quality is close to perfect. I have 2 36 watt PC on an 11 gallon tall tank. The only shrooms I've been able to keep for a long period of time are discosoma and actinodiscus sp. I've had the same problem with rhodactis sp as well. Any help will be appreciated very much, the lfs just got a new shipment of orange rics. Link to comment
SLOreefer Posted July 19, 2003 Share Posted July 19, 2003 are you feeding them at all? dosing your tank with any foods or anything? Link to comment
SaltyDawg Posted July 19, 2003 Share Posted July 19, 2003 If you have them under medium to high current they will do that as well. ( detatch and float to a lessers light area and die.) Try feeding them mysis shrimp. Do this by localy feeding them only though. They dont have sweepers to enable them to catch they'er food. They just eat what ever falls on them most of the time and then envelope they'er body around it pushing they'er food to they'er mouth/mouths. Try using a baby syringe with a plastic air line and a peice of air hose to atatch them . This works well for zenia and all other corals as well. Link to comment
LITTLEFISHEE Posted July 19, 2003 Author Share Posted July 19, 2003 I've tried to get them to feed on brine and mysis shrimp, even when their mouths are "open" and they don't. I use phytoplankton by DT's and CoralAccel about once weekly. The only powerhead I have is at the top of the tank, & I place my ricordia on the bottom or middle where they can't get too much current. I stopped using all other supplements instead, I perform two 1/2 gallon water changes (Sunday and Thursday). Link to comment
The Unit Posted July 19, 2003 Share Posted July 19, 2003 i have read in some cases that some tanksdont supports some corals ...i had a problem keep ing yellow polpys[everything else grow butt them...they just die, like your rics] i just stopped trying....this really dosent help u but hey Link to comment
SaltyDawg Posted July 20, 2003 Share Posted July 20, 2003 two 1/2 gallon water changes in one weeks time is very shocking to your corals. not good. I would only do a half gallon change per week at most and dose a little coral-excell and dt's phyto again. if all your water parameters are "in the green" then there is probably somthing picking at them in the tank. Do you have a pepermint shrimp in there? When I first got mine he tried to eat my ric's by picking at there buble like polyps. This stressed them out to the extent you described as well. Pepermint shrimp eat anenomes as a main staple diet in the wild ( aptasia) and hwen they are not available ( if it is a wild caught pep and not captive bred) they will pick at other small anenome's sampling them to see if they are edible like the aptasia. This is what I have noticed in my own experience any way. I had a wild caught pep and he tried to eat my ric's. I traded him in when they got some captive bred pep's in and viola! no more ric eating. If you are constantly having your hands in the tank moving things around they will do what you are describing too. If dirt or sand or anything falls on them they will shrivel up untile it is emoved also. Link to comment
MiniMasterFlash Posted July 20, 2003 Share Posted July 20, 2003 Maybe you've just had bad luck with the ricordea. I got a rock with about 12 orange polyps on it and the rock was doing well for about a month, then all the sudden two shriveled up and died and about 4 jumped ship. But the ones remainaing on the rock didn't have any problems at all. My observations are that they love light, the more the better. And keep them in a low flow area and they will expand very impressively. And if they will take it, try to place a small mysis shrimp close to the mouth and they should take it. I have a green polyp and a orange polyp that haven't ever taken food, and they are by far least healthy looking. Who knows? Link to comment
AbSoluTc Posted July 20, 2003 Share Posted July 20, 2003 Perhaps its not your tank or anything in your tank. Do you know where these ricordias origionated from? Are they wild caught or tank raised? This sounds sytpical of corals that were once in the ocean and are now in their glass box. They don't like it and will do whatever necessary to find their previous happiness. If they can't, they become blobs of goo. Sad, but true. Stick to tank raised corals and you should not have any problems. Link to comment
SteveC Posted July 20, 2003 Share Posted July 20, 2003 That seems a little extreme. The last I heard, the bulk of the corals on the market are wild caught (unfortunately). And all those tank raised corals had to come from somewhere, right? Link to comment
reefan Posted July 20, 2003 Share Posted July 20, 2003 two 1/2 gallon water changes in one weeks time is very shocking to your corals. I disagree, if you dont just up and poor freshly mixed cold water on the corals. I see no problems with these water changes. Link to comment
MiniMasterFlash Posted July 21, 2003 Share Posted July 21, 2003 Agreed about the waterchanges, your 1/2 gallon twice a week is a very good schedule. Heck even if he did pour 1/2 gallon of 60 degree water into his tank, he's only gonna see less then a one degree temperature drop. Link to comment
LITTLEFISHEE Posted July 21, 2003 Author Share Posted July 21, 2003 With the water changes, I make sure the temps are almost the same, and the water is well oxygenated. I only change 5% of the water twice a week. I know that the rics are wild-caught, some from Florida, others from the carribean. I haven't had a peppermint shrimp since I caught it eating my sea mat. Link to comment
reefan Posted July 21, 2003 Share Posted July 21, 2003 I try to let my saltwater be mixed for at least 12 hours (somtimes I have to hurry and only mix it for a couple hours). I have 2 13w pc's on my 2.5 and three rics for about 2 months and they are doing great and growing. They are near the bottom and movement is supplied by a aquaclear 150. JJ BTW the aquaclear is on the far left side and the rics are on the right. They still get movement but not blasted. Link to comment
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