My pH is in the 8-8.5 range (I need to get a better test kit), salinity is 1.025, temp is 78, nitrate and nitrites are fine and calcium is around 370-380. I have the brain up in the tank, in fact it was after I figured out it should be down in the substrate and I moved it there that it stopped opening up after a few days. I tried target feeding but of course the shrimp, fish and crabs all take the food from it. I might have to set it back on the substrate and try to cover it like you did.
Blastomussa wellsi recovery
- Thread starter TippyToeX
- Start date
TippyToeX
Premium Member
ashnat - You should be able to tell if that green you are seeing is flesh, not skeleton/septa. Any chance of a pic? If you look at the pic from my blasto, you can see the green in the center. Is that close to what you are seeing?
I'd never give up on an open brain, even after it is long dead. Why, because of this report.
For now it sounds like you have the best plan. Try to feed it. Even if you see no feeding tentacles. If you can get a plastic soda bottle cut to fit over the brain to keep the fish & inverts away during feeding time. It works very well.
What is your lighting? I think the substrate is the absolute best place for it. If it have to go up higher because of weak lighting, be sure it's on a nice flat surface so it can inflate and not get torn by the rock work.
I'd never give up on an open brain, even after it is long dead. Why, because of this report.
For now it sounds like you have the best plan. Try to feed it. Even if you see no feeding tentacles. If you can get a plastic soda bottle cut to fit over the brain to keep the fish & inverts away during feeding time. It works very well.
What is your lighting? I think the substrate is the absolute best place for it. If it have to go up higher because of weak lighting, be sure it's on a nice flat surface so it can inflate and not get torn by the rock work.
TippyToex,
Thanks for the reply. I have power compacts for lighting. I took a quick glance at your link and my brain looks similar to those pictures. I don't have a good picture or a digital camera handy. I'll try to get one soon but it sounds like there is hope. Thanks again for posting this thread.
Thanks for the reply. I have power compacts for lighting. I took a quick glance at your link and my brain looks similar to those pictures. I don't have a good picture or a digital camera handy. I'll try to get one soon but it sounds like there is hope. Thanks again for posting this thread.
TippyToex
I finally got my hands on a camera and here is a picture of my green open brain. I'm pretty sure it is still alive because the slit in the mouth opens a little bit and closes as well but I can't tell that it is actually eating any of the mysis shrimp I have placed over its mouth.
I finally got my hands on a camera and here is a picture of my green open brain. I'm pretty sure it is still alive because the slit in the mouth opens a little bit and closes as well but I can't tell that it is actually eating any of the mysis shrimp I have placed over its mouth.
dendronepthya
Premium Member
That brain does NOT look alive.
On the topic of blastomussa though, I have a new found appreciation for their hardiness. I fragged a bunch of them, and some of them were beat to hell. I figured I would lose a lot of them as a result, but to this point, I think they all survived, even the ones I pulled apart by hand.
On the topic of blastomussa though, I have a new found appreciation for their hardiness. I fragged a bunch of them, and some of them were beat to hell. I figured I would lose a lot of them as a result, but to this point, I think they all survived, even the ones I pulled apart by hand.
dendronepthya
Premium Member
Yeah, when I break apart the skeleton, sometimes the crack is right down the middle of a polyp. The flesh kind of holds the two parts of the skeleton together. I then just rip the thing in half. Not pretty.
akirasan
New member
Along the lines of the open brain, how can I get one to color back up? I think I shocked mine when I changed my lighting. It lost most of its green and went a very pale, transluscent green. Would target feeding it help it regain its coloring? Oh, I've moved it out of direct light now. Any thoughts?
