sick chili coral

[ocean.mirage]

he has white spots and black spots on him that lok dead and my snails are always buggin him. He seemed fine though. But tonight I noticed he wouldn't expand.?
what is wrong with him?
What can I do?

 

[Frick-n-Frags]

put it in higher flow maybe. You are kind of on your own regarding chili corals. They are not well documented. maybe clean it off a little too..

 

[ocean.mirage]

bump

 

[sjfishguy]

You know chili corals have a poor track record in captivity right?

 

[SDguy]

Have you been feeding it? You need to feed it tiny meaty based foods, like any other non photosynthetic coral. If you have not been feeding it, it is probably slowly starving, and that starvation will show as dead areas/tissue falling apart, etc.

 

[low riderr]

my chili dosnt open all the time either sometimes days before i see it open just figured it was doin its thing while i was nappin no black spots though mine was partly covered with hair algae for a while. hope all ends well

 

[ocean.mirage]

Well the black spots are more white now. How do you feed it?

I put lots of mysis, zooplankton and cyclopleeze in the tank. If I were to feed it something meaty, where would I place it on the coral?

 

[SDguy]

Cyclopeeze should work. You have to feed the bright white polyps when they are open.

 

[ocean.mirage]

just use a turkey baster and blow some cyclopleeze around the coral. Probably don't need much of it eh?

How oftern should I do this?

 

[Hormigaquatica]

Does it open for you? At night (usually) chili corals will inflate sometimes 2 or 3 times their daytime size and will be totally covered by white polyps; really a beautiful coral when fully open.

Give it a nice shaded area with very high water flow, or they tend to get overgrown by patches of algae (sounds like what might be happening to yours)

When the polyps open up at night, gently dose cyclopeeze and marine snow with a turkey baster around the coral. Frequently (like, nightly if possible).

 

[ocean.mirage]

it won't open at night for a week now, I tried to feed it last night. It has gone completly LIMP.

 

[Hormigaquatica]

Not a good sign. Keep some strong water flow on it, and leave it be for a while then. Ive seen them close up for a couple months before, then open up again. I dont think thats real common, but there is some hope with it at least.

 

[ocean.mirage]

at what point do I throw it out so that I don't have an ammonia spike?

I have a real good spot I could put it in my tank where there is really strong flow. But it would be very close and touching my colt coral. Is this bad or are they fine to make contact?

 

[Hormigaquatica]

yeah, dont let them touch eachother; that will stress out both corals.

Youll actually see it start to disintigrate, or see white web-like clusters on it if it is truely dead. if youre really worried about it you can check your ammonia levels once a week or so just to check, but its usually pretty obvious when theyre dead.

 

[ocean.mirage]

can you touch a chili coral with your fingers?

And I have a yellow furry worm of some type I saw the other night that is about 1.5" long, is it bad or good?

 

[Hormigaquatica]

you can handle them carefully, just dont bother it too much. just be careful, they actually have a lot of spicules in their tissue that can stick your hand.

As far as the worm... dunno. most are pretty safe, but would need a photo to even try to ID it- there are Way too many to try and guess; sorry

 

[ocean.mirage]

thank you. I just tested my water params. All are PERFECT.

I tried to aim more out puts at it. But unfortunatly the flow on my mj1200 isn't that powerful once it is loclined into 2 and has a intake about a16" long with 4 90degree bends in it. It circulates water. but for the amount of heat it puts out. It isn't really worth it. My water is usually 83 degrees and the heater never comes on. I forgot to open the lid this morning and when I came home the tank was 86 degrees. I need to find a small fan that plugs into the wall that I can mount on the lip of the glass on my tank.

 

[ocean.mirage]

most of the holes or spots on the coral are gone. But it really bugs me that it has one 1/4" white hole with a black centre on one arm. Should I cut that arm off with a razor? if so, should I do it in a seperate bucket and blast it with water? (does it discharge mucus like a colt coral when you do this/) Or will fragging the arm off just hurt it worse than it already is?

The other thing too is that my fighting conch won't leave it alone, it is always cleaning it. So it is always a little angry and won't come out.

 

[ocean.mirage]

bump

 

[Peter Eichler]

The key to this coral is finding the right amount of flow and of course feeding it regularly with small plankton like foods. If it is not suspended upside down in your tank I would suggest doing so in a shady spot with a good amount of flow. This will help clear detritus away and prevent algae from growing on it which will in turn keep the snails away. In addition it's how the are typically found in nature. Get your flow and temp. issues sorted out as well as placement of the coral and it could still make a comeback.