General coral opinions

[DaBrowns]

OK folks...I need some general opinions about a candy cane coral we've had for about 5 weeks now. It looks to me like some of the heads are shriveling up and dying. They are slightly hard to the touch and no longer open up at night to feed. I don't know how they "grow" / split and if this is a normal phase or if it's in too much flow or what. HELP!!

The first pic is from shortly after adding it to the tank...the other 2 were a few days ago...and the "condition" is spreading right down the middle of the coral??

 

[class clown]

hmmm.. is there a powerhead really close to it? I have a couple of these and in my experience, they do best in medium/light flow areas vs. the high flow areas.

placement in the tank?

no overcast shadows on the area are there? I had a monti once that blocked it from getting sun and it started to shrivel like that too.

 

[DaBrowns]

everything we've read says it should go on the bottom of the tank...on the sand...it's not in a high flow area...but I could move it to a dead zone. I was wondering how they grow and what is "normal" if anything??

 

[spongebob lover]

do you have any inverts that might be causing it to do this? any corals around it? how often are you feeding it?

 

[DaBrowns]

no corals around it...never seen an invert on it. How about this though...we currently have a small bout going on with red slime...is it possible that a strand maybe got stuck in it's tentacles and ingested?? Just throwing anything and everything at the wall at this point and seeing if any of it sticks. All our other corals are doing great: Frogspawn, toadstool leather, torch, and xenia???

 

[DaBrowns]

oh yea...and feeding mysis from the turkey baster daily.

 

[trido]

I dont think that red slime would cause that many polyps to start dieing. The rest of it looks real happy still. I would try to move it to another spot and make sure you are giving it the proper lighting.

 

[jake65]

What type of lighting do you have on it? If you have halides then it should be on the bottom where you have it, but pc's it should be more towards the top. Also they don't tolerate strong current. I have pc's and they are approximately 10-12" from the light with medium flow. I target feed usually 1-2 times a week. They do 'shrivel up' a bit from time to time, seems normal, at least mine do My temps and salinity are at 77-79 and 1.024-1.025 respectivly. If you need to move it, do it it stages as not to shock it. just my 2cents...hth ......by the way ..that is a nice lookin' one you have there

 

[morgan]

ive seen candy canes grow less then millmeters away from the surface of the water and look stunning
how often do u feed because u could over feed it with mysis as they are quiet large and the carpacing cant be digested
dose look like u had a mj pointed at that spot or if a frag feel on top of it
best of luck i lost a glabrescen (torch coral) over night and was left with 1 head and alot of skeleton to remove
best of luck

 

[scytale]

I don't know how they "grow" / split and if this is a normal phase or if it's in too much flow or what. HELP!!

The first pic is from shortly after adding it to the tank...the other 2 were a few days ago...

I don't think the condition is part of the growing or splitting process, in fact I think I can see where 1 of your poylps HAS split between pic# and pics#2-3.
(the green arrow looks like it was beginning to divide!)

I would agree with other's posting--probably a flow issue...

(I fact if you look really close--it almost looks like that side of the coral wasn't as "happy" when you first put it in the tank....it looks lot more pinched and shriveled above the arrow than it does on the plumper front side....)

Try to re-examine your tank, and think like a C.S.I.
Ask yourself "what makes this side of the coral different than the other side? more flow? less light?"

 

[Sherman]

Just to verify, that's not normal, and definitely receeding/dying. Since you're asking opinions, here's my non-expert OPINION.

You're feeding too much, first. I never, ever, feed any of my corals, including two different candy canes, one of which looks just like yours. I had mixed luck with one of them, in the beginning, and some of this I attribute to constant direct feeding. This applies to my frogspawn, as well. I lost 3 of 4 heads over about a year before it finally settled into happiness. My torch, OTOH, has never been fed, and is doing wonderfully.

Second, lighting. Perhaps it's the variety of candy cane I have, but I found direct lighting to be a problem. Mine never looked better than when I finally moved it under a large SPS shelf (montipora capricornus), in the sandbed, under MH lighting.

Third, I can't help but feel the same as everyone else. It sure looks like you have a powerhead pointed right at that guy, but that could be anything. I'd also agree, it looks like it wasn't completely happy, even in the first photo. You've had a bunch of decent advice, hopefully you'll be able to work something out. The only thing I'd consider is not moving it in stages, but moving it where it's going to go, and just once, if possible. Constant moving and changing conditions can be pretty stressful on corals, so I'd keep those to a minimum.

Good luck! Keep us posted.

 

[spongebob lover]

i agree with Jason (sherman )... daily it's a little bit to much.
I'd feed only twice a week ...i believe only sun corals need to be fed daily.
One looks like its splitting but about the rest it does look like it's dying, may be putting it a little bit in a shadow area would be better dood.
good luck with getting it back to shape .

 

[DaBrowns]

Update

It's the wierdest thing...today after I get home from work...the candycane is looking much better. Actually the whole thing is on the mend. So far they have went from grey and shriveled like in the pix to whiter and a little plumper. Thanks for all the good advice...but if everything stays the same now...it amounted to a rock that was hanging over it directing too much flow down into the middle of it. We'll see what happens next.