Something ate my carnations.
 

What would eat my Scleronephthya. I had these for four months. They were doing wells and continued to do well and grow. But recently I have lost three frags (one orange 3 incher, and two pink 2 inchers) in three weeks. The only traces of them left is some residue stumps. Could a chiton be the culprit? Maybe my halloween crab?? I don't have alot of macro for these guys to eat. Any ideas?

reply
 

I don't know a whole lot about carnations but I just learned that certain nudibranches eat zoos etc. Do you have any nudi's in your tank?

More likely what has happened is that they have reached the point they were no longer able to stay together. Literally they fell apart.

Most of the 'nepthias are non photosynthetic and require massive feedings which no one as I have seen yet are able to provide in a tank to keep these corals alive. Even then it is a guess that it is massive feedings that these corals require for survival.

Basically your coral starved and disintegrated I am betting. These corals do not belong in our tanks at this time. We don't know the requirements to keep them and all that ends up happening is that they starve and die.

hth

I am aware of nephias disintegrating. This is not the case. I have carefully chosen Scleronephthya as they are easier to keep and I feed the tank with various photo and zoo plankton. James from OA has one for over a year and it is still alive. And Bev in calgary has one that is thriving.

I still have other frags and the main mother colony alive. Seahorse Fanatic has seen my frags last month. The remaing five frags and the mother colony are not on the main rock work and is surrounded by sand. The ones that were eaten??? were hanging upside in my main rock work. I would figure it has got to be something that would not travel on sand very well. But I would not disagree with you that they are hard to keep and are not for everyone. I guess no one here locally had enough skill and/or luck to keep them, except James at OA and me.

I agree. They are best left in the ocean until their care requirements are determined by experts and scientists.

What's an expert? And do scientists spend much time determining aquarium care of things? I had one of these 12 years ago, it died right away from disintegration. If these guys have kept them for a year and longer, they're experts in my book. Not that my book is worth much, but...

Based on what I saw at Iluvhockey's, his corals were thriving. I've never had the guts to try any carnation type corals because of what I've heard & read about keeping them alive in captivity, but he's doing something right. Those blue ricordeas I got from him are also doing very well.

I know that if I ever did give this species a try, it would be a frag from someone like Iluvhockey :biggrin: and not one straight from the ocean.

Anthony

There are hundreds of scientists around the world studying and experimenting with the needs of fish and coral. In addition, experts in keeping almost impossible to keep fish and coral with the best equipment, the best in foods and a great deal of experience and knowledge also try to determine what is necessary to keep these difficult fish and coral alive.

When you look at a carnation it is tempting to think that we can keep them. We are going to be the ones that find the secret. The reality is that 99.9% of them die.

I agree. However, I don't agree with your thoughts that if we don't buy them, the retailers won't bring them in, simply because there are too many uninformed/uneducated/uncaring people that WILL always buy them. So, if the guys above can be the ones that are the 0.1% you mention, then go for it. Tell us what you do to keep them, post your thoughts on the boards, and maybe we'll start seeing the common feature of the success stories. Then it becomes 0.5%, then 2%, then ten years from now, we all keep them successfully. That's how this hobby progresses, and sure, it sucks that a lot of carnations are going to die, but the ones that kill them are going to kill them regardless, so again, let's learn how to keep them, and teach those that kill them the proper techniques so the killing stops down the road.
My first aquarium book describes how although those acropora corals sure are purdy, they can't be kept in aquaria, just can't be done...hobbyists over the years proved this to be wrong, albeit with lots of coral deaths, I'm sure. But today we keep them, propagate them, and sell captive raied acropora all around the world, with a pretty good success record. One day it will be carnations, due to the efforts of the hobbyists who strive to do it right. As always, JMO.

Agreed. I would venture to suggest that a lot of what we have come to know about coral husbandry comes from trial and error in hobbyists tanks, rather than from scientists.