Feeding Torch & Bubble Coral

[sophos9]

I have to admit to something here, I'm not sure why but I have never fed my torch and bubble coral. I have had to read up loads due to the recent demise of 2 torch coral heads to brown slime algae and from what I've read, they should be fed between 1 and 3 times a week.

The torch has 3 heads remaining, 1 which seems healthy, the other two have gone almost white - the bubble coral seems to be doing great.

Tonight, I dropped some cyclops-eeze and a small bit of prawn onto the (crown?) of the torch coral, I dropped a small piece on the bubble, I had the powerheads off . The torch puffed right up and the bubble kinda absorbed it!

Torch Coral

Can someone advise on whats best to do?

Cheers

 

[nanocubeking]

That looks like an elegance coral to me.

 

[nanocubeking]

Sorry thats a torch. Just kinda skimed the pic.

 

[SkiFletch]

Tukey baster + mysis + brine. Gently squirt at the mouth of the torch. It should gobble it up...

 

[sophos9]

Hi Ski, thanks for the reply!

Is it best to turn the pumps off before feeding? Currently when I have squirted mysis, it sticks to its 'tentacles' and after about 2 mins, it lets them go?

 

[jourdy288]

Sorry, never had a coral for too long(temporarily in the Carib) but that is a nice specimen you have.

 

[joecoral]

i personally am more of the opinion you should feed the water and not target feed the individual corals, especially in the case of most LPS.
try some rotifers or planton, defrost a single cube and pour into the tank just after lights out
just my 2 pence

EDIT - you would not need to turn the pumps off for this

 

[sophos9]

Thanks for the reply. The only reasons I'm concerned about it getting the food is because two heads have bleached and I want to target feed until its zooanthelle returns. After this I can give the tank one large blast per week so everything eats.

The coral is looking much better and has not got brown jelly, guess I got rid of the other two heads just in time.

 

[SkiFletch]

Lowering the flowrate might help, worth a shot sophos . Just make sure you don't forget to turn them back on

 

[sophos9]

Cheers, I was looking at a Tunze controller with the feeding button..

... then I saw how much they are with pumps

The coral is in a great position, tenticles are randomly moving side to side and flow is about medium, will get another picture soon and compare the two, looking at the above photo and how it is now, its looks as if the zooanthelle is starting to regroup.

 

[sophos9]

Lowering the flowrate might help, worth a shot sophos . Just make sure you don't forget to turn them back on

Things are not getting that much better afterall... Out of the three heads, one is really healthy where as the other 2 are bleached and now the 'tenticles' are not expanding more than a 1cm. I've been reading up and suspect a couple of things which I hope someone can clarify.

Last night, I moved the coral to a position of low flow and lower in the tank. What is medium lighting? I'm running 200w of T5 over a RIO 180, the coral was positioned approx 4inches under the waters surface - is this high medium or low??

The flow thing is just a test, have no idea - trying this after I read an post somewhere, it turned out their coral really liked low flow but now I'm pretty confident I've created a few dead spots...

I also noticed some 3 snails that may have been interfering the two heads, they are those tube snail that release a long line - cannot remember their name but the long lines kept touching the heads. I have removed them now...

For an LPS tank, what sort of flow would you look for?

Cheers

 

[steelhealr]

I'm a target feeder myself. I would feed my anchor coral with a mixture of brine, mysis and cyclopeeze. SH

 

[SkiFletch]

LPS like moderate flow for the most part. The only way they can handle high flow is if it's truly turbulent and changing. Laminar flow is very bad for most really fleshy LPS IME. They can do OK in low flow, but are more prone to the accumulation of detritus if you leave them in a dead zone...

I would have called your previous lighting very high. T5's are powerful and 4" under the water is quite high.

 

[sophos9]

Thanks for the replies...

When I got home last night, the coral looked the best its looked since the BJD which was reassuring. Now was it the flow or the light?

There had been dead spots in the tank and within 16hrs, a load of cyno had developed all over the substrate So... I readjusted the flow and to get rid of dead spots and leave the torch at low flow, the 'tentacles' are swaying gently now. I'm using 2 x seios which give approx 30x tank turn over, my new Tunze Turbelles should arrive today and will be fitted in same way.

My money is on a combination of bad things like too much lighting and those snail worms things irritating the two heads (now is it coincidence that those long lines were hitting the two heads which are ill?)

 

[SkiFletch]

Tough to say Sophos, but like you said, it's usually a combination of bad things... Best bet is to keep it in your current light/flow and keep chemistry as pristine as possible