Please help with candy canes

[beanoil]

My candy canes have looked and grown great for a long time until a month ago. They've always been very plump with no room between the heads, and grew from 4 heads to 23 in 10 months. A few weeks ago, they started looking like this:

Water parameters are as follows:
SG-1.026
temp-78.6
pH-7.93
alk-10.6 dKh
calcium-400
nitrate-undetectable
phosphate-undetectable
lighting-4x39 watt t5HO
medium flow from a Tunze 6025

As you can see, they don't expand well anymore, and the heads trying to split (bottom of second picture) are just one mass of tissue with no progression for a month. I rarely feed them--could that be the problem? I've talked to a couple of RC big names that don't direct feed their corals, so I haven't been. Now I'm thinking that may be a mistake. So I've tried frozen mysis a few times this week and they take it but show no improvement. Sorry for rambling on--any help would really be appreciated.

Thanks,
Grant

 

[Froggy]

Do you target feed them ?

I had the same problem with mine. They more than quadrupled in quantity as far as the number of heads go but began looking a bit withdrawn. I never target fed them anything.

I now feed them mysis, pellet food, flake food, Cyclopeeze etc a few times a week at night when the feeder tentacles are expanded. They are now looking plump again for me and expanding much farther than before I began feeding.

I did not used to feed any of my LPS. Hammers, Frogspawn, Turbinaria, Caulastrea etc. I now target feed all LPS a few times a week. It has been making a big difference for me in the way they look.

Also it looks like several of the heads on your Caulastrea are splitting. Mine usually do not expand as much on the splitting heads until they seperate from one another.

 

[beanoil]

Thanks Froggy--I have been feeding them just this week with no improvement. I'll keep it up and in greater quantity and see what happens. Also, any idea what's up with that mass of fleshy tissue at the bottom where the heads won't seem to split? It's been like that for a month or so. Thanks again.

Grant