Dying Candy Cane Coral

[goldylamont]

hi all, i have a bright green candy cane coral that recently (last week or two) started slowly shrinking. by shrinking i mean the flourescent green pillowy top of the coral is shrivelling up and I can start to see the skeleton underneath. I noticed last week that my Magnesium was low so i've been bringing it up from 1200 day by day (someone mentioned at the last meeting that keeping Mg up seemed to help their candy canes). My Ca and Alk were a bit low too but not enough I would think to kill a coral...they are at normal levels now. I've heard about possible parasites but I don't see anything in particular on the coral...the fluffy part is just shrinking. Other corals and anemone in the tank are doing great. Should I be feeding the candy cane meat or something?

 

[tuberider]

My bet would be on the low mag causing problems and you should start seeing a recovery soon once things stabilize.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

Also, double check your salinity.

If you are dosing 2 part or having to add a lot of Mg, your salinity can be high and that can make your candy canes shrink also.

 

[goldylamont]

thanks guys, i have been and will continue to dose Mg. My salinity has been stable at 1.026. I will keep my fingers crossed! and let you know the outcome

 

[Roc]

how are you measuring your mg and salinty?

I ask becuase lots of hydrometers (salinity) and certian test kits are wayyyyyyyyyy off and in turn your problem could be a new coral not being able to handle what others corals were introduced to over time and have benn become acustomed too.

 

[Reef Keeper]

I found that feeding Rotis helps, but you may need to get the chemistry like the MG fixed too.

 

[CookieJar]

tagging along. I've had a similar occurrance for my 2 candycanes. For some reason they're receeding and not extending feeding tentacles. All parameters check out ok and other corals seem fine. Usually candycane's are one of my hardiest but for some reason they're just 'hanging in there'. I don't have any ideas other than I recently moved mine to lower light, lower flow to see if that helps. I'll see.

 

[northbay-reefer]

my candycames did the same thing because my mag was very low. Now that everything got adjusted and dialed in it is improving. Hopefully.