Brain Coral not happy.

[Zalman]

I got this amazing brain coral as a gift this weekend. I placed it in the sand towards the end of the day. They next day it opened up and puffed up nicely. Monday it appeared slightly shriveled and last night it looked really bad. So i moved it under a ledge to hide it from more light.

I am assuming that my lighting is just too bright for it?
It came out of a 180 gal tank from my LFS. It was about halfway up under halides (possibly T5... I cant remeber for some reason). I Placed it at the lowest point in my 180 with LEDs.

Params:
sg - 1.025
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Calcium - 400

 

[sqwat]

they shrink up at night.it is good to start them in the shade but he was most likly just adjusting and i find brains do not like to be moved i would not move him for a week and let him settle in.he should be fine in the cave right there and at night add a little juice from frozen food and wait a hour till his feeder come out and feed him mashed up tiny pieces of food.just drop them on his feeders like mysis or bites of shrimp or clams.tiny pieces the size of mysis at first then slowly move up in size.i do this every night to every other night till he is settled in then every three days.he goes threw big changes at night. so dont be allarmed and dont move him allot .after 1 1/2 to 2 weeeks put him back into the light.what i do is after lights out i take a cube of mysis and swoosh it in the ware so the smell comes out and after a hour my brain is open and ready to eat,

 

[Zalman]

This had been shriveling up during the day, maybe 1/2 way through the photoperiod. The first shot was taken saturday just after I placed it in my tank, second was last night. Maybe close to the same time of day.

I will try giving it some food tonight

 

[sqwat]

chum the water first.it has only been in youre tank a couple of days if youre waters fine it is just adjusting pluss you moved it once so it has to start all over.try to feed it tonight when the feeders come out it will look inside out just drop on the feeders minced food ar mysis.keep others from steeling it takes time to swallow.if he doesnt send out feeders drop it near the mouth .dont touch coral.it is way early in his aclination prosess so this might take time if he is healthy and water stays good this should take no time at all he will have his feeders out every night at same time .people say feed large chunks once a week but i like very smali minced foods a couple times a week to work better.

 

[seapug]

Check to make sure it's not getting blasted by current or baked by the lights and leave it be for a few days. Brains sometimes look very shriveled and take some time to settled in to a new tank. Constant handling and moving around the tank is what you want to avoid most.

 

[sqwat]

check to make sure it's not getting blasted by current or baked by the lights and leave it be for a few days. Brains sometimes look very shriveled and take some time to settled in to a new tank. Constant handling and moving around the tank is what you want to avoid most.

+1

 

[Zalman]

It had a light current. When it was puffed up you could see the edges move every so often.
I think it just got baked by my lights. My LEDs are considerably brighter than what the store I got it from had. I assumed since it was going deeper in my tank than it was at theirs it would be ok. But since it was so shriveled I moved it into more shade. I will leave it alone for a few days and see how it does.

 

[sqwat]

hows it looking today.mine takes 2 hours to fully open.did it feed last night?

 

[Zalman]

Update... It looks better now that it is under the ledge. Still not as nice as it did at the store though. Doesn't seem interested in feeding although I have noticed that occasionally it gets like these dark black markings on it between the middle and its ruffles. Not sure what that is about.

 

[sqwat]

at night take a cube of frozen mysis wash the juices of in youre tank with tank water like chumming.wait 30 minuits then check coral with a light see if its feeders are out.if so put pieces of mysis in the tentacles use a pippet or tongs just right in the tetacle he will grab it.if he doesnt do it first night it ok just do it every night he will open up.first night mine didnt open then around the 4 night he was open without the chumming and he still is years later.after a week you can slowly move him back to the light.