Ricordeas Mouth is always open

[yeager003]

One of my ricordea florida is looking quite odd. It used to have its mouth closed all of the time and it was purple. Now the mouth is open all of the time and white lobes are poking out. It has been this way for about 12 days now. My other ricordeas are all fine some have even grown multiple mouths and split. Water Conditions are as follows. SG 1.024, Nh3/Nh4 0 ppm, NO2 0 ppm, NO3 0 ppm temp 79. I only have basic tests and i am going to the lfs store tomorrow to buy them. I am also using ro/di water.

 

[yeager003]

here is the ricordea

 

[spanishmack]

looks like it is melting, it is not happy.

make sure it soes not touch any other rics, it may infect them also.

 

[yeager003]

I have been told melting, splitting, starving...... It just seems that no one has experienced this much with rics

 

[kiknchikn]

It looks like it's stressed out... which doesn't necessarily mean it will melt, but it is not happy right now and you should try and figure out why.

I've never seen one look like that when it is splitting. That seems like misinformation to me.

As for starving, I doubt that's the case either because if it were then natural selection suggests that it wouldn't be deflated, since that decreases the surface area in which the xooxanthellae can perform photosynthesis and decreases its ability to capture food floating by.

 

[theborgtank]

How long did you have this ricordea?

If you have only had it for a short time it is probably not acclimating well to your tank conditions.

Otherwise you may have introduced a pathogen with it or indirectly with something else.