Keeping Rainbow Acans Colors

[2006]

they can also transfer zooxanthellae between different pieces of acans. my pink acans are next to my orange ones and the pink ones are turning a bit orange

People laugh but don't let your rainbows touch your ugly acans.

 

[reefgems]

Cptn Spaulding: What evidence do you have for zooxanthallae transfer? Any readings?? I would bet that if you put your pink in a tank that never had the orange it would still turn orange if given the same conditions.

I think acans do change color and it should be expected, there are so many factors that its impossible to generalize this. To do so would be a disservice imo. Some acans will die under low lighting, some will thrive. Others will not thrive under high lighting. I believe that they are individual corals and should be treated individually. They are not the same genetically and are not collected from the same environments. Both high light and low light can make individual acans looks super bright and rainbow.

 

[scolylover]

i've heard that putting them under a lot of light oranges them out... feeding them helps them bring their colors back . but acclimating them to light really is key. when mine expands near the end of the plates, i make larger plates and cut out a perfect circle in the middle of the plate so the old plate can slip right in... for it to grow pretty. .

 

[125galbiznotch]

dope acans

 

[RevHtree]

Def lower light!

 

[mattliu]

zooxanthella is brown.

 

[AdamDeMamp]

bumpy

 

[n0rk]

Most Acans are collected from incredibly turbid waters with high levels of available plankton and very little light penetration (often totally overgrown by macroalgae sprawls), so matching it is a pretty good way to get them happy.

I've always found that feeding them hard and providing them with primarily actinic (NUV, 415-435nm) light really helps them develop intense pigmentation and maintain it. You'll find that especially red pigmentation will quickly turn orange or murky brown without this in most cases.

 

[AdamDeMamp]

Thanks for the tips. What are you feeding yours?

 

[n0rk]

Thanks for the tips. What are you feeding yours?

Mine get a combination of passive feeding from a massive population of copepods and mysids in my system, as well as Cyclopeez, Reef Pearls, and Ocean Nutrition frozen foods. Seems to do the trick pretty well.

 

[AdamDeMamp]

Thanks for sharing, nork.

This thread is over 3 years old. It's hard to believe no one else is having a hard time keeping their rainbow colors.

 

[ksicard]

I'm having a hard time with mine, my LED's seem to change them more orange than anything. They are fat and healthy but loosing color. I have them in the shade now.

 

[Biocubehqi]

Shade shade and more shade! Orange is the acans version of bleaching. If a rainbow went orange it got to much light. And from my experience, either takes a really long time to get the color back or it ruins the rainbow colors all together. I had a gobstopper that was amazing. Put it to close to my mh and now its orange with a blue ring... Sad...

 

[Scutterborn]

I picked some rainbow acans at last years MACNA. I really still struggles to find the proper spot for them as I've changed tanks once then lighting twice. I had just moved them to this spot when I took this pic.

 

[organism]

I have mine under LED's in a 3:1 blue to white ratio and dose vodka to keep the water clean, they all turn even more rainbow than when I got them.