Yuma safe zone??

[slojmn]

After a dismal record of losing 3 out of 4 Yuma's I bought some months back I got back on the horse and bought two gorgeous, huge pink and teal wild Yuma's from a reputable vendor. One looked awesome, mouth puckered up and closed well. The other, the prettier of the two, had a very slightly opened mouth. but excellent color and looked healthy overall. I almost passed on that one because I know these wild yumas can be difficult to keep alive. In the end I couldn't pass it up and brought both home. Both were nice and flattened out on their rocks for the most part and had been at the vendor for 8 days.

Soooo, how long before I can breath a sigh of relief that they are probably going to make it?? It has been 2 days and two nights. The healthy one seemed to grab some food yesterday when I fed all the micros and fish. I didn't notice the same exact response from the other one but it looked like it had a semi feeding response, maybe nothing that large came its way. It still has a slight opening at its mouth but color, shape, and behavior all look good. Both look really good. I always think the 24 hour mark is the indicator for most new corals but Yuma's are notoriously difficult so I am thinking more like the 1 month mark, lol. Any thoughts??

My one lone survivor from before looked good all along and is still doing well. I also received a couple babies from Blazer 88 which looked great from the get go and are doing excellent.

[currentking]

well, my pink yuma lasted about 30 days before its slow death. I have about 30 yumas and have lost 2. one was a wild pink one and one was a green one I had for a few months. Good luck

[aquarius77]

Id say a month. After that you can start to relax some.

[slojmn]

currentking, how did your Yuma look for those 30 days of slow death? Did it start to lose color? shrivel? no feeding response? gaping mouth?
I know the three I lost looked down and out within 24 hours and began to shrivel, gape, etc. over the next 2 weeks of slowish death...one hung on for close to a month but was just all shriveled up. I did hold out hope that it would recover but to no avail.

[currentking]

it was perfect, then I went on vacation, then it shriveled up really small then , poof---nothing

[airinhere]

I think you really only have to worry for the first 48 hours or so. If its sick or dying, it will dissolve in that amount of time.

The hard part of keeping these alive is keeping your tank params stable. Seems like people start losing their Yumas quick after the temp gets above 82, if nitrates get above 40 or if ph values get below 7.5 (even during the night cycle).

Any one of those is easy to slip up on and Yumas are not forgiving at all about this stuff.

For what its worth, I am having good results with my Yumas splitting by keeping 30X turnover and redirecting my powerheads every couple of days. This blows the Yumas around from new angles all the time and they tend to wander around trying to get out of the current. Every part of their foot that gets left behind turns into a new Yuma. Oh, and I feed them every few days.

[slojmn]

airinhere what do you feed them? I like the switching flow up idea...although not something I will be experimenting with for quite a while. I just want them to get settled and do well for a couple of months. I put these two way out of the direct light as well. I plan to slowly bring them out into the MH lighting over then next few months.

[airinhere]

Oh yeah, Light shock can screw them up also. I keep mine low in my tanks untill they color up and then I move them up. Three months or so should be plenty of time to acclimate.

I feed mine mysid shrimp, and I made a slurry from the leftover scraps from the salmon my dad caught in Alaska last year. A little bit goes a long ways. I just toss the skinless pieces into a cuisinart, mix with a healthy dose of saltwater from my tanks and puree untill it can be sucked up by a turkey baster. I usually thin it out with 2 parts tankwater to one part slurry when I feed my corals, this way I can just use a single jar. Otherwise about a pound of Salmon would make like 5 gallons of food.

I feed this in all my tanks, especially target feeding my LPS. (acans, fungia, duncans, dendros) and mushrooms (hairy and Yuma). Also works great for anemones.

[slojmn]

I use to make a nice slurry with different left over fish from the market. My tank loved it. I should go back to that for some extra diversity. I feed about 5 different things but my LPS tank would probably love the slurry. Thanks for the reminder.
Day 3 and all looks well. I am keeping my fingers crossed :).