NEON CANDYCANE help!

[SaltyBoG Water]

It looks shrivled and dying what is going on?

[DanInSD]

Let's start with:
- Tank size
- Water parameters
- Lighting
- Flow
- Filtration
- Other corals, especially those nearby
- Vertebrate and invertebrate tankmates
- Feeding and supplementation regimen
- How old is this coral?
- If it's new, how did you acclimate it?
- If it's old, how long did it take to go from good to bad, and what were the signs? What might have triggered it (new salt mix; new food; change in supplements; new corals or fish in the tank)?

Your message was the equivalent of "Help! I'm lost!". Interesting, but impossible to solve with the information given, other than to say something obvious like "either the coral has a disease/predator/irritant or it doesn't like its environment".

Dan

[dendro982]

What you can try:
- check ammonia
- check alkalinity, if below 6 or higher, than 15 dKH,
- check tank temperature and stray voltage,
- was candycane recently repeatedly dropped down,
- recently placed from high light to very low light,
- has mechanical damage - bit or clawed,
- are neighbors stinging it.

Anyway, you can add carbon, just in case, and frag out what is alive.

If it is reaction on changes - it will recover with time, but watch for brown jelly disease - necrotic tissue. You can see photos though Image Search.

[The Big Tuna]

How often do you feed it? Candy canes & all LPS corals need to be fed on a regular basis. Use frozen Cyclopeez if yer not feeding wt it already.

Joshua

[dachsieholic]

What other food can be fed to candycane besides cyclopeez?

[ganomish]

Try some spot feeding with a Turkey Baster of Brine Shrimp and mine seem to like Blood Worms A LOT. (Same with my ACAN.)
Cheers
Fred

[armagedon48]

i dont agree that all LPS need to be feed. sun corals do, but candy canes use the light for survival as well.

now, feeding LPS corals has a huge benefit, it makes the corals grow faster. under low light conditions, perhaps feeding is a must also, but not so much under intense light.

[Opes]

I agree with the above. I NEVER feed my LPS and they grow like crazy and have great color.

[Fish Friendly]

i FEED MY CANDY CANES BRINE SRIP THEY LOVE IT AND ARE DOING WELL I ALSO FEED CYCLOPEEZ
JUST AS YOU DONT LIKE TO EAT THE SAME THING I THINK THEY DONT EITHER SO I CHANGE UP THE DIETS AND TRY TO GIVE THEM A LOT OF CHOICES

[Fish Friendly]

OPPS SORRY ABOUT THE SPELLING TRYING TO HURRY BOSS CAME IN

[spinninmidwater]

mine too looked shrivled and indeed dying when i got it. it's a pain to watch it receed and disappear. then i started feeding it with baby brine shrimp with green water. use a turkey blaster to blast the solution onto each head. slowly the polyps become bigger and open up a lot better. it's worth the effort

[bohannbj]

try to get your hands on some chaeto
works miracles

[Wrench]

I always buy the worst looking candy cane corals at the LFS because they're cheap and easy to bring back to life. I place them in moderate flow and feed them mysis every night until they bounce back as long as they're provided with good water parameters.

Find out why yours aren't happy and go from there.

[Hogfish77]

Squirt some Coral Frenzy and you'll see them balloon for it.