Problems with Candy Cane Coral

[limontee]

I'm posting this as a separate thread from the one about my neon sun coral. Hope that's the right thing to do.

Hard corals don't seem to be my thing! We have a fairly recently purchased candy cane coral and the poor thing is dying on me and I'm not sure what to do. It does not extend any tentacles -- ever. The colors are fading, and some of the polyps are dead. The living polyps are not plumped out anymore, either. The outsides of them (pinky/orange) are starting to show the skeletal structure under them. I've moved it different places in the tank. I've tried the "thing" with the long hose that you can use to feed each polyp and have even been up nights trying to "force-feed" it frozen mysis shrimp by holding them against the green mouths until I thought it had a secure grip on it and had gotten some food value from it. I've been told by the LFS that it should extend tentacles from where the inner green circle meets the orange outside circle, but it has never extended anything. They said if it isn't extending tentacles that it is starving to death. I recently bought the "smoothie" coral food and have squirted it on the mouths with the water flow turned off.

What should I do? Can you tupperware feed it like you can a sun coral? My LFS says there is enough food in my water that it should be fine without being fed separately, but obviously this is not happening. I currently have it on the floor of the tank in an area where the light is not very bright. It does not have any direct flow on it.

It's a 75 gallon tank, water parameters are all good with plenty of flow (fan, protein skimmer, double bio-wheel).

Thank you for any help you can give me!
Lee

 

[whippetguy]

I can't give any specific advice other than the fact the I've never had success with those types of coral. I see tons of other folks with them in their tanks, but every time I try, I fail. I don't try anymore. How old is your tank? Over time, I've found there are several corals that like my tank and tank husbandry and other types that don't. It seems to be very hit and miss. I hope the coral pulls through for you.

 

[ReefApprentice]

define good water parameters. Also do not force feed it. It will extend it feeders if it wants to feed. I personally would give it a dip in CoralRx and then check if anything near it might be irritating it (warfare). IF not check for pests and parasites. Sometimes certain corals just die in tanks for no real known reason.

 

[HUNTER1]

I had a 4 head candy cane and for 5 months it never shown any growth, it extends it's polyps and seems to feed. I got tired of it and just threw them away.

 

[Mayja]

Place your candy canes closer to the light source, but not in a high flow zone... moderate at most. Mine have thrived ever since I moved them as high as I could in my tank.

 

[goma]

What kind of lights do you have?

 

[AC273]

I have my candy cane literally .5" under the water and about 3-4" from my T5HO lights, and it loves it. They can get shocked if you blast them with light (change bulbs after overusing the existing ones), but generally they love light. They also only generally feed at night, so moonlights will help with this once they are happy. If I remember, it took mine about a week to get acclimated to its new home as well. Move it somewhere well lit, and then don't move it again for a week and see what happens. Moving them stresses them.