New Oregon Blue Tort

[trido]

About a month ago I bought a new tort from B.R. At first it was fully extending and has since started encrusting. In the last few days I noticed it is only extending on about 10-15% of the polyps. I am wondering, If you have this coral. What you are doing to make it happy. Lighing, K rating, Flow and placement in the tank.

I have near 50 colonies in my tank and EVERYTHING is doing well and extending as normal except the tort. I am positive it is not a water quality issue.

 

[Skimmy]

what kelvin and type of bulbs do you have it under? also, are you positive you dont have red bugs? they tend to make corals not polyp.
and what corals is it next to?

 

[trido]

MY bulbs are 14k phoenix 250s. It is up high near the top. I am absolute that I dont have red bugs. I just treated last november and have been extremely watchful since. I seem to have a keen eye for them. It sits near a mille, a couple unknown acros and a stylo. It really isnt behind the flow pattern of any corals and never has been. I run carbon 24/7 and always have.
I really do tend to wonder if it is lighting acclimation. If so, any suggestions on how to get it to spring back before its too late? IME when a coral doesnt extend for very long it is real close to STN or worse.

 

[SueT]

My oregon tort. was end acclimated near the top of my rock structure under 250w 10k reeflux. I got it directly from Travis at Upscales. IME this is not a acropora than doesn't polyp out. Mine does and I too have the idea when a acro that has polyped out stops something is causing this to stop. There is also the idea that polyp extension is not an indicator of good health. I still watch for that. Your lighting should be fine for this coral. Flow should be strong and random. How bout water?? Seeing as you have many other corals and they are doing good then this sounds like a single coral issue. It may be harder to figure it out also. I hope not as this is one of the nicest acropora out there.

 

[tamarindthai]

did you feed your coral?,,with what?

 

[trido]

I feed my tank with a home made blender mix of clams, prawns, salmon, whole thawed rinsed mysis, and baby brine shrimp. I freeze this mix in old mysis portion packs and used to give the tank one cube daily.The eight fish get the big stuff, the nails get the med/ small stuff and the corals get the particulate matter that looks like a cloud when I pour it in. In the last month I have cut this back to every other day and have been giving the tank cyclop-ease every other day. The only difference I have noticed is the fish seem hungrier on the off days.
Just for reference. These are mondays test results
SG. 1.025
dkh 10.2
Ca. 420
Mg. 1380
Ph. 8.4 P.M.
PO4 undetectable
NO3 0.2
I am going to do a 40G (25%) water change on Sunday to see if there is any effect on this coral.

 

[tamarindthai]

wow ,,great menu,,is the polyp closed completly or just little.

 

[SueT]

they also say fish poop is a great food for sps, so if your fish are that hungry then maybe feeding them daily and the poop they make would be better for the corals. I don't think feeding would be the problem since only 1 coral is having trouble. Has the color lighten any?? I find it strange that only a portion of the polyps are not extending.. Nothing could be bothering it in the area with no polyp extension??

 

[CarlaW]

You don't by chance have a little angel in there do you? Is it possible maybe that or some other fish has taken a liking to your tort?
Just a guess.

 

[trido]

Most of the polyps are completely closed. There are some extending around the very top of the frag at night and some around the bottom that stay open all day. It hasnt lost any color but after losing three torts last months I am trying to stay ahead of the ticked off corals. I would say they were my favorites but I have found that I like them all.
I dont have any angels just so I dont have to worry about fish nippers . I havent seen any of my fish near this coral..

 

[trido]

Here are a few pics of the coral for referance. Before posting I switched its place with a green tipped birdsnest (in the back ground) and they are both acting the same. That is why Im leaning towards it being a lighting issue rather than flow. One spot is a med/high flow area and the other is a med/low flow. Although is would be odd that lighting because it came from atank with 400 MH into a tank with 250 MH.
View attachment 20880

View attachment 20881

View attachment 20882

 

[tamarindthai]

if they all acting the same,,WC 30% and 15% and 15% with in 2 weeks will help and new Carbon replaced with in 2 weeks quick,,make sure your Ca reactor is running normal might want to soft the water little 9.5,,hopfully no drip no dose for the last 3-4 days,,some going on deluted it fast ,good luck

 

[trido]

if they all acting the same

My lack of typing here. By acting the same I mean that the green tip birdsnest is still happy and the tort is still retracted.

 

[thekingfish]

Did you ever figure out why you lost the previous torts?
Not sure its the lighting because in my previous tank, I had couple O tort frags near the top right under
10k and 20k 250 DE MH. I've seen them right under 400w 10K which they seem to thrive under.

 

[trido]

Did you ever figure out why you lost the previous torts?

I believe it was a flow issue. I changed the drum on my OM super squirt and think it pushed some already stressed corals over the edge. AS my tank grows in I have had to change some of my plumbing design to compensate for a few dead flow areas. Sometimes new plans aren't always good.

 

[SueT]

I hear ya on the new plans thing. I think that I'd try to get the oregon tort into as much flow and see if you can also get more flow onto it. Random flow that is. The frag pictured looks good it's just not polyping out. The color looks good and it's not lost any color which is a good thing.

I have to keep my ORA green polyp birdsnest low or it starts to loose color.

 

[Elmo18]

Hi Trido.

You have a great tank there. I really SPS, and looks like you've gotten the SPS bite...

As for the Blue tortuosa, I had one a while back when I had my SPS tank. I have to say that phosphates would cause a change in color (mostly lost of color), but as you say, your other corals are doing fine.

Again, what lights did it come from? spectrum..wattage, or I have missed that part? Maybe lower it for awhile, if you have high 10k bulbs. I know that I had to lower mine under 10k 250W XM bulbs, and the frag came from 400W bulbs.

Best,
Ilham

 

[trido]

Thanks for all the support. Since first making this post I changed my OM drum back to version 1 and cut the pump back to compensate for too much velocity everywhere. I feel that I have adequate flow everywhere and the tort seems to be coming back around. It has a few more polyps opening up now and I think that moving it again will just stress it and cause it to need to reaclimate again. I will keep a very watchfull eye on it and move it lower into a different flow area if things dont keep getting better. I will also try to simply keep my hands out of the tank.

 

[servo]

You've got a great tank! Has your Tort started to polyp out yet? Everything seems great. Although flow is very important, I don't think that a lack of it would cause the polyps to retract. Given that your tank and husbandtry skills look up to par, compare your average tank temp to the system that the coral came out of. Maybe it is just having time adjusting if there is a significant temperature difference. My tank runs hot (81-83.4) and is all SPS. The tank is almost 2 years old. Also, check to see if the polyps are expanded at night. This, at least will give you piece of mind. Good luck!