What coral kicks your butt every time?

hyperfocal · #1 12/04/2007, 02:41 AM

What coral(s) do you find impossible to keep? Is there one species in particular that just doesn't do well in your tank?

For me, it's Stylophora. Adding a Stylo frag to my tank is condemning it to a sad, slow death. Pity, too 'cause they're really pretty...

Der_Iron_Chef · #2 12/04/2007, 02:44 AM

Xenia!

idareefer · #3 12/04/2007, 02:52 AM

wow! I am surprised, xenia is a plague most everyone wants to rid there tanks of, we rip it out and flush it down the toilet! even pom pom over grows most tanks, stylo for me is also easy, so my toughy?hmm my open brain, had him for about 4 years, but he just hates any kinda light, so he lives in my sump with little light, & happy down there

gabe3d · #4 12/04/2007, 03:06 AM

bird's nest for me, but recently i just got a frag that seems to be doing pretty good.

Zucker26 · #5 12/04/2007, 08:07 AM

I'm with Iron Chef, I can't keep Xenia for my life!! I have tried 3 separate times and every single time it just shrivels up and dies after a few weeks. And it's even a softie tank!!!

masonicman · #6 12/04/2007, 09:00 AM

Xenia! But I heard that they grow like weeds, so It's probably for the best that I can't keep them.

DocJim · #7 12/04/2007, 09:14 AM

Goniopora--beatiful corals but no success for me.

teamdulski · #8 12/04/2007, 09:32 AM

Xenia for me too, I had a frag that was doing great and then I found it one morning buried in the sand on its head, damn turbo snails.

eskymick · #9 12/04/2007, 09:32 AM

I can throw in any acro and I get great growth and great color.

A bird's nest on the other hand ... total brown out and NO growth.

landlord · #10 12/04/2007, 09:49 AM

Elegance, I've got the skeletons to prove it!

Giving up on 'em.

huskyrider · #11 12/04/2007, 10:05 AM

elegance for me to Ive always heard they don't ship well

Dejavu · #12 12/04/2007, 10:40 AM

Digitata, they just seem to slowly die off every time i add one.

dcombs44 · #13 12/04/2007, 10:42 AM

I haven't tried anything of too much difficulty, but I have a have a coral plague issue. Close relative of xenia. I had an anthelia outbreak that I recently rid myself of. I started with a frag about the size of a quarter and it turned into the picture below. Unfortunately my tomato clownfish that I'd had for 3 years spawned all over in the stuff. The night after I cut the anthelia out, the clown committed carpet surfing suicide.

Here's a before and after:

Runfrumu · #14 12/04/2007, 11:05 AM

just about any of my softies. cant get polyps extension. LPS are doing awesome though, with my frogspawn splitting from 3 heads to 6 already.

boomsticks · #15 12/04/2007, 11:46 AM

I would have to say Birdsnest. Tried three times to keep the stupid things and they either RTN'd or grew HA on them. I can keep acros just fine with no browing or RTN.

zippopunk1 · #16 12/04/2007, 11:50 AM

flowerpot cant believe no ones said that yet

mg426 · #17 12/04/2007, 12:30 PM

Yellow polyps.

Gdevine · #18 12/04/2007, 12:34 PM

Goniopora (flower pot) too ... I call it the "rent a coral" they just are so hard to keep alive.

Travis L. Stevens · #19 12/04/2007, 12:37 PM

For me, it's about any SPS. I keep my SPS high, and I keep a bed of death (AKA Zoas, Rics, etc) below them. It seems no matter what I do, how much superglue or epoxy I use something somewhere will knock it down to it's death. Whether it's my hand, a turbo snail, crazy clownfish, rock avalanche, etc depends on the occassion.

danielsauve1966 · #20 12/04/2007, 12:46 PM

Goniopora here also.... SPS, LPS no problem!!!

ShannHell · #21 12/04/2007, 01:33 PM

I can keep most other SPS but pink birdsnests kick my butt everytime. I have one frag now that seems to be holding in there, but I am not holding my breath

TWallace · #22 12/04/2007, 02:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by zippopunk1
flowerpot cant believe no ones said that yet

Someone did already say it, but they used the genus name goniopora. I've had one for about 7 months now and it's still doing great. I feed it 2-4 times a week with frozen cyclopeeze. I think goniopora difficulty varies widely between species. I've been told that the "green spherical" species is exceptionally difficult to keep, but other colors and ones that don't form spherical skeletons are much easier. Mine is bright green, but not spherical, it's a mostly flat skeleton.

I don't have a particular coral that gives me trouble. Of the ones mentioned above, birdsnest, xenia, montipora digitata all do fine in my tank.

The thing I find impossible to keep though is a fish, the potter's angel. They rarely eat frozen/flake foods and usually die without showing any signs of illness. The last one I had in QT for 2 weeks where he decimated the amphipod/mysid shrimp population. I keep the QT running all the time with some live rock and a few snails/hermits, this also allows natural food sources to breed between fish introductions and I think helps to acclimate finicky fish. During QT, he sometimes ate flake/frozen foods, but never with much enthusiasm. I placed him in to the reef where he still lacked a strong apetite and died within a week. I think I'm giving up on them. I've never had one live longer than 2 months.

madamo · #23 12/04/2007, 03:10 PM

Zooanthids for me...All my other corals are growing/multiplying but my zooanthids just melt away.

blunoser · #24 12/04/2007, 03:25 PM

have had my flower pot 2 years, actually moved it once and a spot left behind is now 3 time it original size , now have 2

cloob · #25 12/04/2007, 04:23 PM

4 heads of candy coral which haven't grown at all. Few months ago I had a beautiful piece of L/R with Ricordia and they melted away in 2 days. I just bought another frag odf Ricordia yesterday so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.