Candy Cane growth

[kissman]

I have a Candy Cane frag with 2 polyps it has been the same size for a year now. I got 2 frogsawns the same day they had 1 stalk now they are 3 stalks in size, my toadstool leather is 3 times the size it was when I got it. I just can't seem to get the candy cane to grow. I took a coke bottle and cut the end out and at night I will place it over the candy cane and squirt a little flake food on it so it will eat. I guess it does? The tenticals are out when I feed it. Just never gets any bigger, Calcium stays between 460-480 alk stays at 10 I use a 2 part doser on timers. Any suggestions?

 

[kingfisher62]

Candy canes were my first lps coral and by far have been my most prolific coral and I never feed them. I do not dose the tank . Just try to keep up with the water changes.
Do you have any pics of yours? I started with a colony of about 20 heads and probably have about 150 or would have if I did not sell some and give some away. Of coarse exponentially a larger colony will show a lot more growth . I would think that 2 should have at least doubled in a year. Something is up. What kind of lighting do you have? where do you have them placed?

 

[kingfisher62]

One more thing. Candy canes have a very delicate skeleton underneath the tissue and if they topple or get moved a lot it is easy to damage that skeleton. when that happens I really think it sets them back and it takes time and energy to heal. Mine always did better when I mounted it to a rock and just let it be.

 

[kissman]

I have a 55g with a Nova Extreme Pro T5HO 6 bulb 54w each fixture. In this pic they were on the bottom I have since moved them up about a quater of the way on a rock.

 

[kingfisher62]

I have a standard 55G also but only 4 X 54w . So, I guess we can rule out the lighting. You got plenty. Nice looking candy canes. I have the metallic green ones. How often do you do water changes?

 

[kingfisher62]

You can see placement of the colonies in mine plus I got some in my 29G.

 

[kissman]

Nice looking tank. I do a 5-7g water change once a week. I have had a slight algae issue towards the top of my glass so I have picked up my water changes a little bit. This morning I got tired of the rock work so I rearranged my rock work.

 

[fdonophan]

Nice tank! I have had problems with my candy canes as well. I think they may be one that likes dirtier water. My first died by my own fault - it got buried and never recovered. My second attempt is still alive, but never fluffs out the way they should.

 

[kingfisher62]

Thanks kissman and fdonophan ! Those 55's are a tough tank to aquascape.As kissman knows! I gotta say The tank had a bad month and was not looking good. lAbout 4 weeks ago My heater went haywire stuck at 98 degrees and crashed the tank. In that crash the candy canes were basically unaffected. A couple weeks ago I used some red slime remover on the tank and in 24 hours the tank had crashed again. This time the candycanes were hit hard. I mean they were hit hard . The flesh was just disinergrating and falling off. I thought I lost them all but after a two weeks 90 percent have almost fully recovered.
Candy canes gotta be one of the most hardy LPS's out there.

Fdonophan, You could be right about them liking dirty water . My tank is running skimmerless.

 

[kissman]

I either found the problem or killed them, lol! I took the out and there appeared to be green slime grown around the stems, very strange alomst looked like green coraline algae the way it was covering them but it was soft. I cleaned them off and will see what happens.

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[Tahoe Reefer]

IME the brown ring with green center is the slowest growing of the trumpet corals. The green (not the neon green) and the teal grow the fastest. I've grown a green colony from 3 polyps to larger than 12" ball in under 1 1/2 years, had to break it to get it out of the 55g. In the same time span and system a frag of brown and green trumpets only grew about 10 new heads. This happened several years ago in my 55g. I tore that tank down and took a new 3 polyps frag of green and a 2 polyp frag of brown/green. 1 year later here they are:

The green on the lower right is way bigger than the brown/green turpmets yet they started near the same size.

Edit: I never fed any of them, set and forget coral.

 

[nonstopfishies]

They should be growing and splitting. I am very surprised they aren't especially with you feeding them. They seem to grow in all sorts of conditions. I have had them in low light tanks with noticable nitrates and phosphates as well as super clean mixed reefs with no nitrates or phosphates. The colony I currently have was 2 polyps just over a year ago and is now at least 40 polyps. I do agree with above that they grow faster than the brown rimmed trumpets. I have noticed, not suprisingly, that trumpets and candy canes puff out more in lower light and lower flow, so I wouldn't say they are supposed to be really puffy or not is a sign of health.

 

[kissman]

Hopefully what ever it was on them that has been cleaned off will help. It was like a mat or something looked strange. I will keep you all posted thanks for the help

 

[donald altman]

IME the brown ring with green center is the slowest growing of the trumpet corals. The green (not the neon green) and the teal grow the fastest. I've grown a green colony from 3 polyps to larger than 12" ball in under 1 1/2 years, had to break it to get it out of the 55g. In the same time span and system a frag of brown and green trumpets only grew about 10 new heads. This happened several years ago in my 55g. I tore that tank down and took a new 3 polyps frag of green and a 2 polyp frag of brown/green. 1 year later here they are:
The green on the lower right is way bigger than the brown/green turpmets yet they started near the same size.

Edit: I never fed any of them, set and forget coral.

I have the same exact experience.. these colonies all started at teh same time with 3 heads... about 5 years ago...

6 -54watt t5ho---- always been kept on bottom of my tank in the sand.

I've actually gave 10 or soheads of the last pictures away becuase it does split so fast.. I've never fragged the other two (blue and the pink stripped)

 

[sancho153]

I would try to move them up off the soil for a bit and let them get a little more flow. I have mine about halfway up the tank putty'd to the LR and mine grows a new head every few weeks.

 

[kissman]

I have moved them up some just under half way

 

[sqwat]

i had one head found on lfs store bottom of tank 2 years ago now its 6 full heads just sptits and grows off.mine like allot of light same kind as youres brown outside green inside.they start to look like a ultimate fighters ear then more mouths form and they start splitting and growing away from each other put him high up

 

[kissman]

What ever it wad i cleaned off of them! It might have helped i noticed they were more open the other night thzn i have seen in awhile

 

[Cubman777]

I also had the teal ones, and they grew like crazy. It could be that the brown rimmed ones just don't grow as quickly for whatever reason. I remember that with mine though, I saw a lot of growth (with all of my LPS's) after I began to regularly dose my tank with lugal's solution.