I purchased some new coral today, a Kenya Tree being one of them. I drip acclimated it just like I did the others but its the only one that isn't open or even upright for that matter. I have read that these are hardy coral; however, how long should it take to open ? It's a pretty good size piece. Any thoughts / suggestions would be appreciated.
New Kenya Tree not looking so good
- Thread starter boopedvue
- Start date
Give it a week before making any serious conclusions. Besides being one of the easier to care for soft corals, Kenya trees (or so i have been told more than once) act as a great water quality gauge. they can take several days to acclimate and adjust, but once they are happy in your tank, they will tell you how the tank is doing. When lighting, temp, flow, nutrient export, salinity, and trace elements are where they should be, they'll perk up wave happily and can even grow like weeds. I had them in a 50g tank that was being a bit neglected. They seemed to shrivel in and never came out. Did some water changes, added some trace elements, etc and within a week they were all hanging out. If you see em start dropping branches, thats not a bad sign. Thats how they propogate. They'll drop branches and depending on flow, where ever the branches land, a new tree will grow. WHen mine got to 3" Tall and had a head the size of a baseball, they started dropping branches like they were being hit with a weed eater. Next thing i knew, i had 8 new trees in a couple weeks in different spots. Thats just the branches that landed somewhere that got enough light. Who knows how many went to dark places.
I am happy to report that when I got home from work yesterday it was standing tall and had opened nicely! It's a good thing this happened though. While paying close attention to the Kenya I found a small sprout of aptasia (sp?). I really don't want to put any chemicals into my tank. I read that you can inject with a small amount of lemon juice and it shouldn't affect water parameters. Anyone have any luck with this method?
Lemon juice works. If its not too close to your corals, you can try hitting it with a blast of boiling ro/di water. Ive had good luck with both, and Aiptasia X is for all intensive purposes powdered chalk mixed with water. In SW it acts just like live rock, because its made from the same thing.
Creekview
Member
Two things have taught me patience, reef keeping and raising two daughters. Sometimes you just have to take a deep breath, say a little prayer, and wait...........
Yes also boiling water and kalkwasser paste are 2 other options. Good for you to get on top of it early. Try to not "rip/tear" it any because little pieces become new anemone in time.
Luckily its in a small hole in my LR. Would boiling distilled water work as effectively as boiling RO/DI water? I would rather try that first and if that doesn't work then the lemon juice. If all that fails, where would I find the kakawasser paste?
I have 2 daughters as well and they turned out fabulous. Required lots of love and patience...and if I do say so myself, the tank has turned out ok too!
I have 2 daughters as well and they turned out fabulous. Required lots of love and patience...and if I do say so myself, the tank has turned out ok too!
Good news again! Stopped at my vet on the way home and she gave me a very small syringe with a very small needle. I drew up some lemon juice and was able to squirt right in the middle....I shut the pump off for 15 minutes (prior to injecting the juice), turned it back on and then my coral banded shrimp came out, poked around in the hole, pulled out what was left of the aptasia and ate it! That turned out to be a lot easier than I thought. I actually found another one. I think I was able to get a direct hit on that one too.
Thanks for your responses!
Thanks for your responses!
Thank you ! I think I am done putting anything more in the tank - I really don't have the room. If I were to add anything else, it would be something for the clown fish to hopefully host with. My torch coral isn't big enough yet and after visiting the lfs around, I haven't seen anything I like. For now, I am pleased with the progress. And because of all the assistance I've been able to get on these forums, the few problems I have had haven't amounted to much of anything. I think I'll quit while I'm ahead and sit back and enjoy the tank. I am also learning that everything I was told when I first got into this is true; its expensive, you always want more and you always want bigger!