AustinV Posted January 13, 2004 Share Posted January 13, 2004 I have some candy coral that two of the five heads look great, the other three will look good for part of the day and then will look really sunken in or shriveled. Tank specs: 12 gal. eclipse aquaclear 150 filter 2x32 custom sealife 50/50 15 lbs. live rock 2 in. live sand dose calcium and reef supplement twice a week feed phyto every couple of days nitrates below 10ppm Any suggestions on what to do or what is happening is appreciated. Link to comment
birdman204 Posted January 13, 2004 Share Posted January 13, 2004 look at them at night, they open better at thet time. Check your supplements you are dosing, to make sure one doesn't have the same ingredients as another, yuo could be overdosing. also make sure you are testing for the additives you are dosing. Link to comment
Dingo Posted January 13, 2004 Share Posted January 13, 2004 They inflate and deflate. Mine does the same thing. Link to comment
AustinV Posted January 13, 2004 Author Share Posted January 13, 2004 Mine inflat and deflate, but the three I was referring to at times look like they are trying to receed and die. Even at night when two of the five are really inflated the other three if receed, which they generally are, do not seem to inflate. I am using seachem's all in one dosing so I am not overdosing of anything, plus they have been like this for a few months now, even before I was dosing anything. I appreciate the input though. Link to comment
donkeykong Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 Are the heads trying to split, when mine split they shrivel for a couple of weeks till it fully splits Link to comment
AustinV Posted January 14, 2004 Author Share Posted January 14, 2004 No they aren't trying to split but they are ones that had previously split before I got the coral. Link to comment
danimal Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 my candy coral also inflates and deflates all the time. it chows every time it is fed and sticks its tenicles out at night Link to comment
enrico Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 Do you feed them directly (like with Artemia just to make an example)? If not you should try, maybe they are just hungry and don't receive enough light to compensate the absence of food... Link to comment
saltyFISHscales Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 actually mine, has lost its color over the months... does anyone have ideas on that? The original color was pinkish orange outside and bright green center, now it looks all bleached out. Same with my Brain, it started out red and green, now its bleached out too!!! 10 gallon nano 55watt JBJ CPR bak pak Link to comment
Tempest Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 Austin - I had a similar problem. I moved the coral to a different location in the tank where it was getting more light and the heads slowly regenerated. I also used Coral Vital, but I'm not sure if that had anything to do with the polyps regenerating. (Though my GSP has been growing like mad since I started dosing with the Coral Vital...) Also, make sure the calustrea isn't directly touching any other corals or getting stung. Saltyfish - Check all tank water parameters and if you are dosing... stop until you know the water chemistry. Did you change the lighting at all? How old are your bulbs? Just a couple of ideas to look into. Good luck. Link to comment
enrico Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 To all: please remember that Caulastrea grow far better if they are directly fed. I feed mine twice a week with a choice of artemia salina (brine shrimps), pieces of shrimps (those frozen for human feeding ), pieces of clams (still for human feeding too)... I give food with tweezers to almost each head. You can use almost any kind of frozen fish food for marine aquariums. They don't like dry food (pallets for example) or non marine food (chironomus fro example). Feed directly your candy cane and you'll see the difference! Link to comment
enrico Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 Just as a note... My Caulastrea had 8 mouths in July when I got it. It had 14 in October when I divided it in two parts giving away 6 heads. Right now we are back to about 14 again... Direct feeding pays Enrico Link to comment
AustinV Posted January 16, 2004 Author Share Posted January 16, 2004 What is best to feed them. I am just directly feeding them phytoplankton. Any suggestions as what is best to feed them would be appreciated. Link to comment
enrico Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 For my experience this kind of LSP needs "substantial" food... Think of a man you can feed him with pop corn or beef but, if you are hungry, beef is (usually) better... Caulastrea need substantial feeding. I don't know what you can find. If you have a good acquarium shop nearby search for some "big" zooplancton frozen. Adult Artemia salina (brine shrimp) is fine, Krill should be fine also if I never tried it. As I said before I use also some kind of human food of marine origin. Pieces of shrimps or mussels are fine (for a head a cube of about 2 mm side cut from a shrimp might be fine). Their mouth seems small but they can eat rather big stuff... Maybe also a little piece of fish can be fine (never tried)... Feed them at night after a pair of hours lights are off or in the morning before lights turn on, when they have their tentacles out just touch the tentacles with the food and they'll catch the food. Turn the power heads off for a few minutes if you want to work a bit better. Use tweezers or something similiar to take the food to the tentacles. Link to comment
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