unhappy chili coral. help?

[mercedes]

i'm not sure what to do about our chili coral. he's one of the few softies we decided to keep + transfer into the 50 gallon (predominantly sps/lps) tank. he doesn't seem happy + is doing this weird thing w/ his polyps (see below). Any idea what's going on? Any suggestions on how to get him to come out again? Thanks in advance!

in the 15 gallon:

in the 50 gallon:

 

[FreakinReefin]

i'm not sure what to do about our chili coral. he's one of the few softies we decided to keep + transfer into the 50 gallon (predominantly sps/lps) tank. he doesn't seem happy + is doing this weird thing w/ his polyps (see below). Any idea what's going on? Any suggestions on how to get him to come out again? Thanks in advance!

in the 15 gallon:

in the 50 gallon:

That looks like one pissed off chili. Did you change the lighting conditions drastically? The rock looks pretty clean, did you properly cycle the tank before hand? Are the water conditions right?

My guess is too much light and too many nitrates...

 

[braddo]

That looks like one pissed off chili. Did you change the lighting conditions drastically? The rock looks pretty clean, did you properly cycle the tank before hand? Are the water conditions right?

My guess is too much light and too many nitrates...

To add more clarification here, the chili has never really been happy for long periods of time in either tank. When we first placed it in the 15g tank it showed good polyp extension nightly for about the first month. Then things started to go wrong. The coral wouldn't extend his polyps at all for a month or more at a time followed by a week where he would extend again. This cycle repeats itself over and over again, one month angry, one week happy.

The 50g tank he is in now has been up and running for about 6months and is completely cycled. The rocks look clean because they are, we bought dry, pressure washed, bone white Marco rocks when we setup the tank. The flash in the picture makes the rock look whiter than it really is.

The chili coral is placed under a rock overhang in a moderate flow area.

What caught my attention recently was the look of the polyps. Usually they are out, as seen in the first picture, or not at all. Now it appears that the base of the polyps are extended but not the individual 'feeder tentacles'. My guess as to whats happening is that the tissue surrounding the polyps has receeded so much that the polyps are no longer able to fully retract inside. The coral is now 1/2 - 1/3 the size it was when we originally purchased it.

Any advice on how to make and keep a chili coral happy?

 

[FreakinReefin]

To add more clarification here, the chili has never really been happy for long periods of time in either tank. When we first placed it in the 15g tank it showed good polyp extension nightly for about the first month. Then things started to go wrong. The coral wouldn't extend his polyps at all for a month or more at a time followed by a week where he would extend again. This cycle repeats itself over and over again, one month angry, one week happy.

The 50g tank he is in now has been up and running for about 6months and is completely cycled. The rocks look clean because they are, we bought dry, pressure washed, bone white Marco rocks when we setup the tank. The flash in the picture makes the rock look whiter than it really is.

The chili coral is placed under a rock overhang in a moderate flow area.

What caught my attention recently was the look of the polyps. Usually they are out, as seen in the first picture, or not at all. Now it appears that the base of the polyps are extended but not the individual 'feeder tentacles'. My guess as to whats happening is that the tissue surrounding the polyps has receeded so much that the polyps are no longer able to fully retract inside. The coral is now 1/2 - 1/3 the size it was when we originally purchased it.

Any advice on how to make and keep a chili coral happy?

Hmm...honestly it still sounds like a cycle issue. 1 month cycle and then 1 week happy just sounds like it is taking advantage of the best possible water conditions of that cycle. The shrinking of the body is definitely due to it not getting proper nutrition. What are your water perameters? Your light and flow sound okay, being shaded and moderately strong current. The diet should be supplemented with phyto or marine snow or something like that. Not sure if it's too late with your chili...but it shouldn't be. I would keep very low light on it for a while since the best polyp extension is for sure going to be at night and maybe bring it under low low actinic for a short period after a day or two. Just my opinion...I'm sure someone else can be of some help too.

 

[braddo]

Every week we test and do a 10% water change. All parameters have been extremly stable. We ocassionally feed phyto to the tank.

Temp 78
pH 7.9 - 8.2
SG 1.026
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
Phosphate 0
Calcium 440
Alkalinity 8
Magnesium 1350

 

[FreakinReefin]

Every week we test and do a 10% water change. All parameters have been extremly stable. We ocassionally feed phyto to the tank.

Temp 78
pH 7.9 - 8.2
SG 1.026
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
Phosphate 0
Calcium 440
Alkalinity 8
Magnesium 1350

The only other thing I can think of is a pest of some sort. Chili coral is not always the easiest to grow and I have failed twice at it due to angels picking at them. Other than that, I'm stumped

 

[FreakinReefin]

The only other thing I can think of is a pest of some sort. Chili coral is not always the easiest to grow and I have failed twice at it due to angels picking at them. Other than that, I'm stumped

I have been reading a little more about chili coral and there is a plethora of information out there because problems are so common. It seems, by far, the biggest problem is light. I say just light because any light at all seems to be the problem. There are several threads that I was reading on Reef Central as well as one other where issues with chili were resolved by removing them from the light completely. The coral is non-photosynthetic and does not do well in light at all due to this nocturnal nature. Plus, since their food is 100% provided by the water column, I would try to spot feed it consistently at the same time every day. It appears the coral learns the habits of the hand that feeds them and will swell at the time they are usually fed...given, that they learn this habit. Either way, good luck!

Oh one last thing, I think there is a specific chili and gorgonian food called "Reef Chili" that you can try too.

 

[braddo]

Awesome, thanks for digging into this issue.