Ricordia white ooze

[cpaseth]

I'm brand new to the reef tank world, thank you in advance for any advice.

Just got a ricordia frag on Sunday, this morning it had a white ooze coming from it, covering it's mouth and such, is that bad? I carefully removed it, hoping that wasn't a bad idea. I just read that they are some of the hardiest corals out there. I just found out I was an idiot and it doesn't need to be fed other than lighting and optional supplements, so the tiny bit of brine shrimp I shot at it last night probably wasn't the brightest idea.

Any other ideas on what it is?

 

[Tallinu]

Depends, Ricordea Florida are almost indestructible in a healthy system and can be torn to pieces if you want do it in such a crude way to frag them. On the other hand, Ricordea Yuma are some of the most difficult corals to keep. Feeding your Ric is a good idea but you should switch to something more useful like the mysis variety of shrimp. You can target feed once or twice a week and it will use the food to boost it's growth and repair itself. Or if very healthy and robust it will eventually start to reproduce or split.

First thing you need to do is identify which type of Ric you have of the two varieties. Then you need to comb this forum for common threads that most keepers will agree on. Issues like strong current or lighting. Water paramaters.

As far as the white Ooze goes. White is not a good color. If it were deep dark brown, almost black, I wouldn't worry. The fact that you easily removed it suggests that it wasn't the digestive filaments called messentaries. It could be in a sense poop. Sometimes when they eat they discard bits many hours later and brine shrimp are kind of bony and not very nutritious. A telling sign would be the overall look of your Ricordea. If it's not gaping at the mouth or shriveled, scrunchy looking you should be in good shape.

 

[cpaseth]

It is a Florida Ric. It actually was mysis shrimp, not brine (my freshwater roots are showing my true colors). It was starting to split when I bought it so I'm guessing that shows it's healthy. It's more of a tan/white, not bright white, almost the same color as the shrimp. It wasn't easy to remove, I said I did it "carefully." I'm going to research meesentaries, sounds like that might have been what it was, and if so I shouldn't have removed it. Interesting. Thanks for the help Tallinu, it's greatly appreciated!