Droopy Spaghetti

[FrogSpawn]

Although that might sound appetizing with a bit of marinara sauce, I'm afraid I have a very real question. My roomate and I have just set up a new saltwater aquarium. 20H small starter for us. He has had them before I on the other hand kill beta fish. Therefore I normally just watch and hand him stuff. Anyway, we recently purchased a very beautiful spaghetti finger leather coral. On the first day of it being in our tank it wouldn't "open up" to us. Now on the second day it has gone all wilted looking but is showing us all his many polyps. Should we be distressed about his new found lack of posture? I hope you all are prepared for many spazzy questions over small things, but we just love our tank and can't imagine putting money into these little guys and losing them.
Thank you,
~J&J~

[Gina]

A Spaghetti leather is a moderatley difficult coral to keep and needs an established aquarium.
How long has your tank been set up?
They are semi-aggressive and need distance between other corals.
What type of lighting do you have?

[ReefLady]

What about current? These leathers like a moderate current -- not too strong, but they should "sway" in the water flow. They really need a random type of flow to remove detritus and mucous that they typically shed.

As far as the current droopiness, it may just be adapting to it's new home. As Gina said - what type of light?

[FrogSpawn]

VHO compact flourescent 96 w 20".
And the tank has been set up for 1 1/2 weeks now. We also have yellow leather, frogspawn, mushroom polyps, two feather dusters, green zooanthids, one percula, scallop, banded shrimp, and a starfish. All of these are fine. Now as far as current, he sways slightly but nothing major. We check the conditions of the take 3 times a day and all stay at proper levels...
So I hope that helps you help me.
Thanks,
FS

[Charlie97L]

just my opinion, but that's waaay big stocked for only being up 1.5 weeks.

was your live rock precured? also, when a tank is new, you need to add things slowly so as not to spike the parameters.

how close is the frogspawn to the leather? that can sting pretty bad... and they have sweepers that can reach 6-8" out and sting.

[ReefLady]

Could you provide your current tank specs (salinity, temp, calcium levels, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate [whatever tests you have]).

1+1/2 weeks is really early to have anything in the tank at all -- it's likely still cycling, which could be part of the issue. Tank parameters will help narrow this down.

[FrogSpawn]

Well I thought it was a bit quick as well on the packing. And yet as soon as I finished putting up that last post. He perked right up and everyone seems quite happy and out and about. My ph 8.3 and everything else is right where it is suppose to be, salinity is like 1.023. Everybody comes out and no one is attacking anyone as of yet. And the frogspawn is on the other side of the tank from most stuff because of his stinging projectile. The leather we found out was just perched percariously and he is so big on his small little rock so he was having problems standing correctly. And also all the rocks had been cured for at least a month. So I appreciate your help with this. And if you have any advice or good ideas they will always be greatly appreciated.
Much obliged,
~J&J~

[Woodstock]

Good news!