Need Quick Help with Favites!!! (pics)

[SteveNMegz]

Hey guys, we've had this favite for around 4 months now. since we got it we have never seen any sign of tentacles wether its during the day or any hour of the night. we don't know if its just getting to much light, or maybe not enough, or maybe because it hasn't eaten at all (we've tried lots of times and it just doesn't work)

Heres some pics....
The full coral, left side is all wasting away, while the right side which is a bit lower is still puffed up

The left side

The right side

And placement in the tank (tank is 20" deep)

Thanks for your help!!!

 

[Amoore311]

Is that the appropriate color or the piece or is it bleached? Reason I ask is because there is a white Favia called "Ghost Favia".

The left side of that coral looks really bad. Is it getting to much flow? If that continues to spread you might want to consider fragging off the dying end.

 

[greggnyce]

It may not be getting enough light as well.

 

[SteveNMegz]

no its not supposed to be the color, its more of a red/purple, with green mouths originally.

the reason we think its getting to much light is because the right side is lower than the left (but not by more than a 1 1/2")

we have about 60X turnover in our tank, so there is quite a bit of flow throughout, but even when we shut our powerheads and return pump off so the water is totally still they still will not eat.

we were considering fragging it anyway jsut to try it in different spots of the tank and hopefully some peices make it, but now in this condition we're not sure if it'll survive a fragging.

 

[jph]

move it into one of the corners of your tank where there is less light.
or even put it into one of the two shaded caves that you have.


J.

 

[SteveNMegz]

we just put it under the bridge on the right, if this doesn't work would putting it into the cave on the left where it would get 0 light be wise?

 

[Amoore311]

My Favia doesn't feed often don't worry about that part. However I just noticed your tank specs......I would also bet it's getting to much light.


FWIW my Aussie Prizm is 3/4 of the way down the rockwork on my 90 Gallon under a TEK Light 6 Bulb (54 Watt Bulbs).

You can reverse the recession and the bleaching, but it will take quite a while.

You're sure everything is stable in the tank? No temperature fluctuations or anything of that nature? I had a Lobo bleach pretty bad b/c my temp went through the roof while I was on vacation, everything else in the tank was completely fine.

 

[SteveNMegz]

our temp fluctuates between 80-83 but has always done that, its a slow rise from 80 throughout the night and morning to 83 by the time the lights shut off at night.

any advice on if we should frag it into smaller peices so we have more spaces in the rockwork to put it?

 

[Amoore311]

I wouldn't frag it now. Don't put it under any more stress. Best thing to do when a coral is looking like this is to relocate, and then don't touch it at all. If it continues to recede then you would obviously be forced to move it again.

 

[SteveNMegz]

sounds good we'll keep an eye on it and keep trying to feed it, any tips on feeding it, obviously we can't use any sort of containter to cover the coral while feeding and while feeding with no flow its hard because the coral won't grab and it kind of jsut floats away (never mind fish and shrimp trying to steal it)

 

[Amoore311]

Defrost a bit of mysis and spray the juice at the coral gently. In 15-20 minutes the feeder tentacles should be out.

Once they are out get the baster close to the tentacles and very gently puff some mysis out on to the coral. You have to be gentle here, to big of a puff and it will retract.

 

[Taqpol]

I had a favite that started to bleach under my 4x24w T5's in a 20 Gallon tank. Moved it down to the sandbed and within two weeks it was strting to puff up and i saw feeder tentacles for the first time in two months a few nights ago.

I think T5's are more powerful than most people realize.

 

[JRechcygl]

Try fish eggs to feed, they are small and sink

 

[ahullsb]

Hmmm. I may be wrong but I was wondering if it wasn't getting ENOUGH light at the bottom of the tank. I had to move mine up after a few months and noticed better coloration and growth.