Acan Lord changing colors. Why?

[vessxpress1]

I bought a nice colony of Orange acan lord with green mouths. It's been in the tank for a couple of weeks.

At first, nearly all the mouths were green. Now, there's orange mixing in with the green on most of them. Only a few on the side still have the solid green mouths.

Are my T-5s causing this? They're towards the bottom. Why is this happening?

 

[jjmcat]

You have orange lords?Is there anyway you can post a pic please.
I had a orange echinata that had green mouths but not its solid orange.

 

[vessxpress1]

It probably is an enchinata. I'm kind of new to them so I don't completely understand what's what yet.

Pretty sad seeing what it used to be. I've had it for a couple weeks. When I got it, it looked like the spikey parts of the skeleton had punctured the bag and most of the water was gone. It was packaged well but the USPS must have tossed it around pretty hard. The surface was still wet, just hardly any water in the bag. I let it float for 15 min. and then added some water. Then followed through with a normal aclimatino period.

It didn't look good for a while but eventually, the colors came back. But now, it's just dull. I have two other acans down where it is at that are doing great, with great color.

Before, a couple weeks ago in the other guy's tank:

After. Taken a few minutes ago:

Not enough light? It's under 4 T-5s, near the bottom.

 

[jjmcat]

I dont know if its a kelvin issue or what.Mine did pretty much the same thing as yours and I have a hair over 900 watts of hallides and vhos.Can you describe the tank from wich it came.

 

[vessxpress1]

I don't know. I bought it from a guy here on RC. I'll ask him.

 

[Chads29]

mine seems to have orange around the outer edge where it doesn't recieve as much lighting so if i was to guess i would say that having it a little shaded will bring back the orange

 

[RandyO]

It's hard to say exactly what happened to your coral, but I would guess the lighting had something to do with it.

I've kept Orange Echinatas under a few different lighting setups, and they usually had a brighter orange under lower lighting.


Looking at the picture of your coral, it looks like you burnt it a little. The top of the hump looks pail, with the flesh drawn as far into the skeleton as possible. The side of the coral that is getting indirect light looks to have better color.

I would put this coral in the shade and let it puff up again. Then try to feed it. It will probably take weeks or even months to recover fully.

When in doubt of where to place a coral, always try to put it on the bottom of the tank, or even in the shade. You can do much more damage putting a coral in too much light than not enough.

 

[vessxpress1]

Thanks for the replies everybody. I have had it on the bottom of the tank the whole time. I will try to find a little shade for it and see what happens.

The other day, I came home and my urchin (somehow) had tipped it over onto my maze brain. It bleached a spot on the brain and I'm sure didn't help the acan much either. It was changing colors before this though.

I will try to shade it a little and see what happens.

 

[cristhiam]

Hi, how's your acan doing? you picture reminds me mine, when I burned it, I put it all they way to the top when I upgrade my tank and from there bleached and looked horrible. I put it all the way to the bottom and shaded under a rock for a few weeks and fed it at nights when the feeders came out.

Now

 

[RobynT]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9752788#post9752788 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cristhiam
Hi, how's your acan doing? you picture reminds me mine, when I burned it, I put it all they way to the top when I upgrade my tank and from there bleached and looked horrible. I put it all the way to the bottom and shaded under a rock for a few weeks and fed it at nights when the feeders came out.

Now

What are those green pointy things sticking out of your rock?

 

[RobynT]

Beautiful acan by the way. I have taken a liking to the acans but it's really hard for me to find a place to buy them other than online. Any suggestions?

 

[cristhiam]

some kind of calceous algea, the come and go this is the second time I see them in about two years

 

[Chads29]

Buying them online isn't a bad thing especially if you get an alive arrival guarantee. Most of the people who run buisinesses are very good at giving you some kind of guarantee with your order. But always verify that prior to purchasing and stay in contact with them especially when the weather here in the north starts to get cold or hot as it seems to change quickly at times.

 

[vessxpress1]

Wow cristhiam! What a turn around. That gives me some confidence with it.

The guy I bought it from said it was under 2 175 watt 10k MHs and 220 watts of VHO, and he kept it on the bottom.

It's had a tough go of it since I bought it. As I stated above, it was packaged well but it still managed to puncture the bag on the trip up here. Hardly any water left in the bag when I got it but the whole thing was still wet. There was enough.

The SG in the bag read 1.021 on my refractometer and I keep it at 1.026.

I acclimated it and put it up high on the frag tray for the first few days before I moved it down. That was probably the biggest mistake. My photoperiod is 12 hrs.

I've had a few severe pH swings from kalk that I would have liked to avoid.

And, my urchin had tipped it upside down onto my maze brain, bleaching a spot on the brain and stressing the acan also. They could have been like this for any number of hours while I was at work.


Now it's in a safe spot, on the bottom. I'm leaving the lights out for a few days. This was the first day with the lights out.

After the full night, and now the full day with the lights out, the feeder tentacles were out further on all of the heads than I have seen so far.

I gave the tank a good feeding of Rod's Food, briefly under the actinics and target fed it with some reef chili and cyclo-peeze.

I'm hoping I can turn this around as well as cristhiam did. That's just awesome.

 

[All Delight]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9752888#post9752888 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RobynT
Beautiful acan by the way. I have taken a liking to the acans but it's really hard for me to find a place to buy them other than online. Any suggestions?

http://www.darklordcoral.com is located in IL. I don't know how close, but they will allow you to come by and pick up. They have some really nice stuff.

 

[Chads29]

I agree with All Delight, I have stopped by and purchased a few different lord's and micro's from them and all i can honestly say is that they rock!

 

[RobynT]

Thanks for the info and I apologize for butting in on this thread. Your acan really inspires me though!

I will definately stop in at Dark Lord after IMAC if they are going to be open. Thanks again!

 

[nUgZ]

Good luck with your echinata. I wouldn't really worry about it being injured from an encounter with another coral. My echinatas like to eat their neighbors...

 

[vessxpress1]

Showing improvement

Showing improvement

Well, it's starting to look better after being in the tank a few weeks. It acts much healthier than it was. Feeders are extended on every polyp, every night now. Color seems to be coming back. The top could be better but it at least gets puffy and extends feeders.

I took this shot today with my Canon S3. I found another setting on it for flourescent and H (High output?) flourescent. I set it to the later and the true colors were represented very well on this shot.