Disappearing Rics

[lancer99]

I got this really nice rock that was literally covered with Ricordea floridas.

They were fine for a couple of weeks, but over the last week or so, they've been disappearing. Over the past 10 days, I've lost five or six of them.

It started in the back of the middle of the rock. They scrunch up in the evening, then the next morning, are gone. It has progressed from the back to the front of the rock.

The Rics on either side are fine, fully extended and looking happy.

I thought maybe it was flow, and that they were detaching, but I've reduced the flow, and can't find any detached Rics anywhere else in the tank

Tank params: 75G, 440W VHO, SG 1.025, pH 8.2, Ca 400, Alk 2.2 meq (both a little low...could that be it?), no NH3 or NO2, Nitrates between 0.25 and 0.5 (Salifert).

Any help is greatly appreciated.

-R

 

[lancer99]

No one has any ideas?

I *am* happy to say that I haven't lost anything since posting that msg.

The only things I've changed are adding two part solution to try to get my Alk up to NSW.

-R

 

[Azurel]

The low alk could be the issue that is what I would fix first. Sis they slime up at all first? Were these Florida ricordea?

I had an issue with Floridas about 2 months ago and found that there was a small copapod that was attcking them. Not saying that this is your case but I had never heard of this before then. Once I posted there was another gentlman on another forum that had the same issue.
The copapods seemed to eat them from the edg causing them to shrivel up and slime. I only found this out when I was attempting to get the slime off them I could see the copapods swiming in the slime. Some took on the color of the polyp that they were attacking.
You won't see them during the day as they seem to hide under the polyp and around the foot of the polyp when the lights are on. But at night they due there thing. I didn't notice till I lost about 5 polyps before I figured out what was going on......So keep an eye on them. Fix the alk issue and if it continues look a little closer at them and see if you can find littl dark red/ balckish copapods around the foot.

 

[corals b 4 bills]

I am having the same problem but as always I forget that I need to reduce the flow in my tank, recently I cleaned the screens on my tunze pumps, they were on 100% flow. after I noticed some mushrooms detatching I turned the flow to 30% and the shrooms are starting to reattach and expand, most mushrooms like places like the back of the tank because it's not as caotic. put them on the side of the tank and they will do better.

 

[lancer99]

Azurel & corals B4, thx for the replies.

Azurel, I checked them out after the lights were out, but couldn't see any pests.

As I mentioned, I started to add the Alk supplement from twopartsolution, now bulkreefsupply.

After a couple of days, my Alk is up to 3 meq/L, and since beginning to add the Alk supplement, haven't lost any more polyps.

Of course it could be due to to other factors (adjusting to light/flow), but I am just happy that they are happy!

-R

 

[Azurel]

That;s good, I had never seen pest do that to them before and was kinda stumped about it......I'm sure the alk was the problem anyway. The reason I mentioned it is with all the rics coming from Haiti on large rocks I am sure we will run into something along the way like I did. Anyway glad to hear things have settled down....