salvagable acan lord

[Perureef]

here's my story.....i bought a small piece of red acan lord from my pet store. it was only $20 dollars because of the 12 or so polyps it originally had only about 4 or 5 are healthy, while 2-3 are dying and the rest are naked skeleton. I bought it because i believe that i can save it, having had a similiar and successful experience in the past with a closed brain coral. my questions are:
is the tissue interconnected? i bought it assuming they arent, but if they are there is no reason to think the damage will not spread, thus making my situation hopeless. I'm aware that feeding accelerates growth, so should i do it more often, or should i keep it at once a week? I have 4*54W T5 HO bulbs over the tank, should i provide it with strong light or keep it soft? Finally, most of healthy polyps are surrounded by dead skeleton. should i cut this skeleton so they have room to spread, or will they grow over the skeletion? If so, how would i cut it off?

Sorry for the lengthy post but i hope someone can help me out. thanks

 

[kass03]

I kinda had the same thing happen yesterday.
Ive had my lord for over a yr and it was doing well but it got too close to my echinata when I moved it to my nano and it got stung pretty bad.
The polyps were turning into jelly that got stung so I put it in a bowl of tankwater and used a turkey baster to blow off all the bad stuff.
I then dipped it in kents coral dip which Ive never really used before but got free.
I then put it back in my tank and the remaining unstung polyps seem to be ok yet but it's only been a day.
Ive had this happen before with a blasto merletti and the good polyps were ok also.

So I would blow off all the bad dying polyps out of the tank. Put it back and hope it recovers. If more die repeat. I know mine was stung so it is'nt a fungas or bacterial infection but I guess could lead to one which is why I dipped it and to help heal.
The dip has iodine but not sure what else if anything.

The polyps are like individual but connected lol if that makes any sense. Alot like blastos.

I have fragged mine before but it is'nt easy as the skeleton is pretty thick.

I have 6 T5 54 watt HO on my 55 and thats where I originally put the lord when I got it. I started it on the bottom cuz they don't need or like alot of light. I eventually moved it up about midway.
I would put it on the bottom for now.

I rarely feed mine but you can especially at night when the tentacles are extended.

You might wanna try the LPS forum for more info.
You thought your post was long lol.
They're usually pretty tuff (but I guess echinatas are tougher lol)so good luck!

kass

 

[Perureef]

thanks for the advice and the luck, definitely made me feel like i can succeed at this. the longer the post the better lol! one thing though, do you think that increasing the light intensity the polyps get would speed the recovery, or would it simply lead to stress? again thanks

 

[Monti]

I'd say feeding more is going to be better for its recovery than more light. I think at this point, too much light might stress it. Try stabilizing it for awhile, and then experiment with lighting placement.

 

[Perureef]

ok thanks again for the info

 

[cristhiam]

What ever you do Don't blast them with strong light. I'll find a thread on how I saved mine. pic of mine are in my www

 

[Perureef]

thanks I appreciate it. i have 4 T5 HO over my tank. the piece is 8 inches from the water surface and the lights are 2 and a half inches above the water surface, but it is located underneath the center brace of the tank so the light it gets is rather diffused. is this okay? again thanks for all the help

 

[cristhiam]

I would put it all they way down for now. I found the thread. mine are completely healed.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=794947

 

[cristhiam]

I did remove the pictures, but mine was so bad to the point that will not even eat.

 

[Perureef]

I have a 72 bowfront (20 inches deep). regarding light, where would you recommend i place the acan at, or do you think that where it is is fine? (for reference, T5's HO bulbs are equal if not better than VHO's)

 

[cristhiam]

I have mine on the sand bed shadded from direct lights. They are a very hardy corals. I would keep them shaded a little and see if you can get feeding response at night. Do they look deflated?

 

[Perureef]

thanks for the link. so the very bottom would be fine? the problem with the bowfront and my rockwork is that i only have the front of the tank free and this region only gets indirect light. is this still fine? thanks

 

[Perureef]

the ones that are healthy are inflated. the rest are deflated if not fallen apart. I'll try your advice and move it down, and feed at night and see what happens.

 

[cristhiam]

Indirect light is fine for them. They don't need a lot of light. Keep us posted. If you can post a picture

 

[cristhiam]

ohh not direct strong current either.

 

[Perureef]

thanks for the info. I'll post a picture when i can. hopefully it all goes well

 

[kass03]

I agree put it on the bottom for now.

I had mine shipped to me and it was stressed at first and deflated. I have T5's and put it on the bottom and it took over a week before it started to inflate well.
When they are stressed you don't want to blast them with light.

If it doesnt look good on the bottom in a week or so then maybe change the location.
I usually start all my corals on the bottom when I get them unless I know they came from alot of light. Then gradually move them up.

Yes also agree they don't like alot of flow either.
I think if you have some polyps inflating it will be ok. Just try to remove the dead parts with a baster if they are falling off.

This was mine when I got it.

Then months later after I moved it up about halfway in the tank but I took my time moving it up.

kass

 

[Perureef]

As promised, here are a few pics:

and another one:

and one more:

sorry for the delay, this is the first time i ever posted images on reef central. tell my what you think about their health. thanks!

 

[Perureef]

there is some dead space in between some of the healthy polyps, and if you look at the third pic, right at the middle where there is white skeleton, some spagetti worms live there. you can kind of see them in the first pic. do you think they cause any problems? the scattered pieces of tissue that you see at the left and at the bottom, can i expect them to make a recovery with good care? the only reason i ask is because I dont see any mouth(s) on them. Again, thanks

 

[cristhiam]

Mine looked worst than those, they should fully recover, just leave it alone an see. You'll have a very nice colony in a couple of months keep us posted. I have some feather dusters growing in between of some of my polyps, they are not a problem.