candy cane feeding

[mhills16]

At night i have yet to see my candy canes feeding? do they open real late or what, i have looked like 2 hours after lights off and still have not seen them, or am i missing something?? do the moonlights keep them from feeding, i only have 4 and they are pretty low light!

 

[mhills16]

the heads are still splitting and growing.... i saw a small snail with a roundish shell on one of the stalks not on the polyp, it is brownish in color, are these bad or good?

 

[serum153]

My candy canes come out when the moonlights are on and usually about a 1/2 hour or so after the lights go out. Try putting a piece of mysis on one of the heads and the feeder tentacles will come out. They really get into the habit of when there is food around, so if you put a piece of mysis on a couple of mouths an hour after the lights go out for a couple of days, it will most likely get in the habit of expanding it's feeder tentacles around the same time. The snail most likely is reef safe and you can id it here http://www.melevsreef.com/id/snails.html

 

[mhills16]

thanks ,i pulled it out to get the snail off, is it normal for the polyps to suck back in during that, and also, i didnt hurt it by just taking the snail off, i had it out of the water for like 20 seconds and quickly put it back where it was. I took the snail out just to be safe

 

[serum153]

The snail will be fine...Matter of fact I did the same thing a long time ago and had it out to take a picture and I was pointed to the same site to id it. From my experience my candy cane is very sensitive and doesn't like being moved or touched and the heads shrink and stay hard for a long time afterwards. Remember to use latex gloves (non powdered of course) or something similar as it doesn't irritate the coral as much. It will also help you from getting rashes or at least it helps me if I am ever moving anything around the feeders or any of my lps really.

 

[mhills16]

but what i did wont kill it will it?

 

[mhills16]

i used my coral grabber to get it lol, it is 38 inches long with the tongs at the end, i never actually touched it, only the rubber tips.

 

[serum153]

Should be fine and if not I am sure one of your grabs will enjoy it

 

[SALT WATER CRAZ]

It should be fine.

 

[Paul_PSU]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12996469#post12996469 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by serum153
The snail will be fine...Matter of fact I did the same thing a long time ago and had it out to take a picture and I was pointed to the same site to id it. From my experience my candy cane is very sensitive and doesn't like being moved or touched and the heads shrink and stay hard for a long time afterwards. Remember to use latex gloves (non powdered of course) or something similar as it doesn't irritate the coral as much. It will also help you from getting rashes or at least it helps me if I am ever moving anything around the feeders or any of my lps really.

How long did the heads stay deflated? I just got a huge colony off of someone and it was ok for a day then the heads deflated. It still feeds at night though. All of my water parameters are good.

 

[serum153]

Mine have always been very sensitive and they both are quite strange. My red and white ones love low light and high flow, while my green one likes high light and low - medium flow. If yours are high up then I suggest moving them down a tad and let them adjust for a couple of days. I used to feed them at night, but haven't for a while and growth is still great. I will drop in some zoplan every now and then, but really I don't even know if they benefit from it. I do know that the second it hits the water their tentacles come screaming out. GL