sickly candy coral looking for a good home

[Markarian421]

We got a candy coral in January, and it's only gone downhill since we put it in our tank. Everything else in the tank seems happy, so I don't know what we're doing wrong, but I think it's time to give up -- we've tried everything with no improvement. It has been badly receeded but none of the polyps had died until this last week, now about half have. And just to add to its misery, our tank is haivng an outbreak of this wierd pink colored hair algae stuff, and it has started to take over the candy coral.

So if you have good luck with candy corals, and want to try and save it, it's yours.


http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bclee/tmp/candycoral2.jpg

[darcitananda]

my candy corals enjoy being target fed. they become very plump and tentacle-y with fed regularly. i would take it but i'm in SF. i see what looks like a hairy shroom next to the coral. candy's have a pretty strong sting but seem to be particularly prone to stings from mushrooms, aiptasia, and other anemones.

[Markarian421]

We've been target feeding it on a daily basis, I think that may be the only thing that was keeping it alive. This last week I cut way back on feeding because the pink fuzz is starting to become a serious problem, mostly just right around the candy coral, and I thought target feeding might be feeding the algae as well. That's probably why a few polyps finally gave up, less food last week.

From that angle the mushroom looks close but it's actually pretty far away. Nothing else stinging on that side of the tank, just a lot of zoanthids. Probably the major irritant it has is that the hermit crabs climb over it a lot now that it's retracted.

[raddogz]

I don't target feed my green or striped candy-coral. I have the striped candy coral in my nano and it is happier as it has split a couple times creating a couple of new heads.

I wound up killing a frogspawn by trying to target feed, screwed up and lost three sps frags last year that way. I don't target feed anything but a sun coral these days.

[capescuba]

I have some of Darcy's candy corals and they are indeed very plump and "tentacle-y". :)

I'm also in the East Bay, El Sobrante. If you are going to the meeting on Saturday we could hook up then? LMK.

What do you have below the candy? Looks almost like Majano :eek:

Regards,
Dave

[Markarian421]

I wasn't going to be there Saturday, but maybe I should reconsider.

It's all green hairy mushrooms over there, one on the rock to the left and several on a rock in front of it. None can touch it. (Well, after I typed that I looked, and the one on the rock to the left is just barely touching the side of the candy coral now, that mushroom is growing fast.)

[TheMandarinFish]

I can take it. My tank is not so good for SPS, but my candy canes do well, as do my blastos. I'm in Oakland and work in Hayward. LMK if someone else doesn't get it.

[Markarian421]

That might work -- I'm in Fremont and work in Berkeley! I'll probably telecommute tomorrow (Tue) too unless something comes up, so I'll be in Fremont all day. Email me if you want to try and stop by.

[Vincerama2]

Hey, I had that same stupid pink fuzz as well, I put in two "Mexican Turbos" that I got from Aquatic Gallery (in Milpitas) and they've eaten almost ALL of that pink stuff. It had plagued me for at least a year, I had to pick it out by hand, etc. I've never been able to keep the big turbos alive more than a week, but the ones I got from AG have been doing really well and I was amazed to come home one day and see that a montipora that was absolutely coated with the pink stuff (I kept trying to pick it out, but it grows between the branches!) was completely fuzz free!

As for the candy cane...what are you target feeding it? I feen mine frozen mysis shrimp and I've fed it freeze dried "Zoo plankton" (the stuff fed to freshwater fish) and it loves it. However, I had some "Inertabrate Target Food" which was some liquid stuff and when I squirted that at the CC, it COMPLETELY retracted, almost like it was pulling back it's gums and showing it's teeth...it really didn't like that stuff. I mention that just in case it doesn't like what you are feeding it.

V