Colt Coral Shriveling!!

[Tranquil201]

I got a nice colt coral a few days ago. It has been doing fine but tonight about 3 hours it ago it shriveled and swollen. Is this normal? All my other corals are doing great and have been.

Water Parameters

Gravity: 1.023-1.024 tested with refractometer little lines kill me lol
PH: 8.4
Ammo: 0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate: 10
Cal: 500
Phosphate: 0

When I first brought it hope I placed it on the bottom of the tank which is 24'' deep. I used an 8 bulb T5 Tek Light and it shriveled. So I thought it may not have been getting enough light so I moved it up about mid tank and it opened back up and did great but tonight it's shriveled again. Anyone have any input on these corals??

 

[rkaragozler]

leave it alone. don't put your hands in the water, its ok

 

[JonnyJ]

Colt corals are very temperamental in my experience. Shriveled and swollen does not have anything too do with it not getting enough light. Could actually mean too much light. corals generally do the opposite when they are looking for more light... Colts dont need much light at all. I personally would place it where you want it and then just leave it. If you keep your parameters in check and dont mess with it, it will come around shortly.

some things that can cause them to shrivel..

Nighttime
Something messing with it, Fish/Inverts
Heavy flow


i got a frag of colt from richie above and it took 3 weeks too open.

 

[Dre]

Let us know how it's doing tomorrow and post pics if you can.

 

[rkaragozler]

I agree post a pick when you can

 

[Dre]

Let us know how it's doing tomorrow and post pics if you can.

And next time please ask about the care lighting ,flow, feeding etc. of these beautiful creatures before you buy them.

 

[Tranquil201]

I did ask about the lighting in the store they said low light and had it on the bottom of their tank in the sand bed but also there tank was not as deep as mine. I also bought my fixture used and waiting for my new ATI bulbs to arrive from UPS.

On a positive now this morning it's buds came out again but it has shrunk in size. The picture i'm posting is how it looked before it shrunk and shriveled.

 

[cdamiano]

You didn't list your KH level. Are your parameters stable? It will probably close up if you have any big swings in water parameters. What kind of flow do you have it in? It likes a little bit of flow. This is typically an extremely hardy coral that will spread like a weed in your tank if your parameters are stable. It shouldn't need a ton of light, where you have it in the picture should be fine.

 

[JonnyJ]

hey man, on a positive note thats a Really nice scape !!! tank looks really nice. It will be fine. Just adjusting to the move.

 

[Dre]

Yeah, that's nice work but your tank look very new for these corals. They are hardy but very sensitive to change. High nitrate, nitrite and ammonia is your biggest problem but that's not the problem at the moment. Leave it alone it will slowly get ajusted to it's new surroundings.

 

[Tranquil201]

The tank is not really new but I keep it clean I'm always cleaning the algae off the class and sifting the sand. I do 10 gallon water changes every two weeks. I use RO/DI water for the changes and top off. So do you think the colt would be ok on the sand bed? This would be 24" down at the bottom give or take from the thickness of the sand bed. I will test the KH tonight and post the results.

 

[KathyC]

How long has the tank been up & what size is the tank? Just curious

+1 on the aquascaping, looking good.

Leave it where it is, it definitely does not need to be on the bottom of the tank. It just needs to settle in. Leathers will sometimes close up everyday - for no apparent reason and sometimes they will close up before they 'shed' their outer layer.

About the worst thing you can do is keep moving it around. Leave it/put it where it was in the pic, it will bounce

 

[Tranquil201]

This tank is 90 gallons it's been running for 6 months but has sand and water from my old fish only tank that had been up for three years. Thanks for the compliment on the rock work.

 

[Tranquil201]

The colt is doing great tonight everything is back to normal. Thanks for all the responses.

 

[KathyC]

Good to hear