URGENT: Problems with my Bubble Coral

[edikpok]

Hi guys,

I have a 29g biocube aquarium that has been running for about 3 months now as a reef setup(but running for abuot 1.5 years overall). I purchased a bubble coral 4 days ago and placed it right in the middle of my aquarium so that there is not too much current to not damage the bubbles. For some reason one half of it seems to be doing fine but the other half does not fully open and it looks like it is receding.

As of a week ago my parameters were 0,0,10 and I performed a water change 2 days ago.

Any ideas what I can do to save it? will feeding it help? if so, then with what and how and how often?

Your help is much appreciated!!!

thanks,

Ed

[naesco]

If you have not been feeding it, it will decline
Place some mysis or brine shrimp in the mouth of each. You can also use shrimp pellets.
You should be feeding it every other day IMO.

[edikpok]

I never had to feed hard corals before so excuse me for the nubie question - how do you feed them?

[Myka]

Feed it whole Mysis shrimp (Piscine brand is tops). Just gentlu place the shrimp between the bubbles, and it should retract around it. You can probably feed it 4-6 shrimp per feeding. I would feed it every second day until it gets better.

LPS corals generally don't have to be target fed like that, but if they are in poor condition feeding will pull them out of the gutter often times. Feeding will also hugely increase their growth rate. My bubble coral gets lucky and gets fed every now and then (like maybe a few times a year), and I've had it for over 2 years.

I think you need to put it in a different place. To me, a very good spot for it would be in the sand (they like being in the sand more than the rockwork ime) in that little nook on the left where the Zoas are. Behind the leather (looks like a leather?). Might have to move the leather too. Make sure none of the flesh is touching the sand, and none of the bubbles are brushing against the rockwork.

[Jason McK]

If you are running the stock lights that come with the Biocube you may not have enough light. Plus if the bulbs are older you will deffinatly not have enough light

[edikpok]

Would you place the food in between the bubbles with your fingers? or would you use a pipette? How long should I wait aftet the lights go off? should the pump be off?

I originally had it standing where the Zoa are (behind the leather frag). The current was a bit too strong for the bubbles over there IMO. So then I decided to move it to wherever it is right now so that there is almost no current onto it....

It is weird - looks like the receding bubbles opened up a little more right now but are still no where close to the size of the other half...

[Myka]

My bubble gets quite a bit of flow, the bubbles jostle around a bit. You can feed it while the lights are on. I think the stock lights in the BioCube should be enough, but do you know that PCs need to be replaced every 6 months?

[edikpok]

The PCs are only 2 weeks old and according to different info that I have read PCs should be enough....Thanks for the tip of replacing them every 6 months. I was under the impression that it was every 8 months.

How can you feed them with the lights on? don't your fish join the feast?

[Myka]

The bubble coral won't thrive under PCs, but it should do ok. I would suggest at least weekly feeding it (once it's healthy, feed more now) to help it. The bubble coral sucks the shrimp in pretty fast, my fish don't bother me when I feed it. I usually just use a turkey baster and gently blow it into the coral so I don't have to get my hands wet.

[edikpok]

CRAZY!!!! I put some mysis shrimps on it and it caught it right away!!!!! At some point my 6 line wrasse was trying to get the food out of the coral but then the tenticle closed right away and "sucked" the food inside!


So freaking cool!