Cladiella Trouble

[cinematek]

I got a Cladiella Coral a week ago. It looked great for 5 days. (Image #1). On Saturday it started looking dark and droopy, and this morning it looks like this. (image #2) I turned the lights on about a half hour ago to see if it would perk up, but it hasn't. Plus, there are starting to be tiny bits of pink floating around.

trites/trates: 0
KH: 200
pH: 8.0
Temp: 76-78
SG: 1.025

I have a frogspawn, green star polyp, zoanthid and plate coral that are all doing just fine.

Any ideas?

 

[mile sq. reefer]

No offense but the coral looks dyed, a very sad practice employed by unethical people in this indusrty that almost always finds the coral on the losing end. You can almost see what appears to be the natural polyp coloration poking through in the second pic. I hope it does bounce back for you. Also this is the SPS forum and you may have more help in the soft coral forum.

 

[cmc0814]

Well, I'm no expert on these corals, but it looks like a carnation coral, not a colt. These are very difficult to keep. They require low light (probably the culprit at this time), high flow, and lots of plankton to feed on.

 

[cmc0814]

If it really is a colt coral, then I would guess it was dyed. But that is the way the carnations are supposed to look.

 

[mile sq. reefer]

IMO it does not even look close to being a Carnation (Dendronephthea or even a Scleronephthea), but rather a Colt dyed pink.

 

[cmc0814]

Hmm...You might be right.

 

[cinematek]

Assuming it is a colt dyed pink (not sure), is there any way I can save it?

 

[TIMMYE]

I would put in a mid light, med flow area of your tank, and dose with DT phyto plankton. This will hopefully give you best chance of survival. I would also talk to the store you bought it from about selling dyed corals.