my plate coral looks to be dieing... but frogspawn and xenia are happy?

[areze]

first 3 corals in the tank, 2 look great, but the plate coral seems to be very very unhappy. its tenticles never really inflated. and now they look to be getting even more deflated.

my main concern, I run bare bottom, so I stuck it to the starboard with some epoxy, does it have anything on the bottom of the plate that I just plugged up like a total idiot that is now killing it?

or... what else could it be? its in direct light, 20" deep under a 250w MH so I dont think lights a problem, unless its too much?

 

[AIMFish]

I've never heard of someone glueing a plate down. They can move around the substrate on their own. Is it possible to remove the epoxy?

 

[Qckwzrd]

I agree sticking a plate with epoxy to the bottom isn't a good idea. Plate corals sometime move around if they aren't happy where they are at. Unstick it and let it be. Mines stay inflated and I feed it about once a week some mysis and chopped squid or shrimp.

 

[Sk8r]

Plate has living tissue on the bottom, and it inflates at times. THe epoxy has if nothing else confused it if not damaged the tissues: a plate with a damaged bottom usually dies.
Drop a tiny bit of raw shrimp or some sinking pellets onto the disk and see if you get any action.

 

[areze]

I got it up and removed the epoxy from it, stuck it in a corner with low flow and it cant drift into a rock or anything.

Ill see what happens I guess.

this is what happens when you impulse buy

 

[waterfaller1]

Is this a long or short tentacle plate? Long polyp plates generally do not do well long term in captivity. If a short tentacle, make sure it is'nt getting blasted with flow, and feed it. Do you have peppermint or cleaner shrimps, wrasses, copperband butterfly, or anything similar that could be picking at it or stealing food from it's mouth? I find the short tentacle & cycloseris plates easy to care for as long as they are fed regularly and nothing is molesting it. I have an orange cycloseris in my 12 gal JBJ NC with stock lighting & it's amazing.

 

[areze]

I dont really know... I mean, the tenticles arent out, so I cant say.

they are pretty fat, and look like they would be long if they were healthy.

today its looking much better, not healthy, but better. its more inflated than it was, which is good since before it was only getting worse.

 

[waterfaller1]

I would run some tests and get all of the parameters, particularly PH & Alk.

 

[airinhere]

are you feeding it? They are voracious eaters. I have fed eraser sized peices of silversides to mine before. You also need to make sure your alk, calcium and ph are all balanced and at appropriate levels for these to do well.