**Superman Yuma needs help/he is trying to detach

[firemountain]

Attended a local frag swap and bought a frag pack of 3 Yumas and 3 Floridas. All were quickly dipped in a weakened solution of Revive. I basically did 3 separate, "30 second" dips, followed by a saltwater rinse in between each dip. I know dipping them is risky, hence the reason for the weakened solution and quick dips. Needless to say...hitchhiker a did come off for each one!!

Anyway....all are doing great EXCEPT my one Superman Yuma. It appears to be lifting its foot. All Yumas are in a low flow area at the bottom of the tank, and under indirect light....which is right at the crest of an overhang. Lighting is 1 Kessil 360WE. For now I have kept my Kessil at like no more than 10% intensity, and 100% blue. I have the new Kessil controller, so I can tailor the lighting to my needs.

Tank parameters are all good. I know they hate being moved, so I don't want to touch him just yet, or even do the netting thing. Would trying to feed them help a bit, or just stress them any further? I do believe they are all aqua cultured, and were bred under LED's. Is it possible that maybe he needs to be in brighter light??

Any input regarding this would be appreciated. This Yumas is absolutely beautiful....and I want to do everything I can to make him happy. Here is a pic from the Frag tank he was in...

 

[philosophile]

Basket and net him. Even mild flow will stress it out because it'll make it wiggle more and stress it out. If he isn't wiggling at all in the flow you have him, then it should either reattach or get worse. If it's getting worse then it doesn't like the spot it's in and is bailing out to rehome somewhere else. So the way I see it, you only really wing here by moving it now and let it get settled on a rock, before you move it out.

 

[firemountain]

Thanks. Right now it is not wiggling....I have two feather dusters placed on each end that they are kept. I can tell how strong the current is by just seeing how the feather duster sways when they are open.

Since my original post...it appears to be getting SLIGHTLY better. I actually just dialed back my main return a bit, to calm the current down even more.

I will see how the next few hours go.

 

[firemountain]

Well, a few hours later the Yuma lifted even more, so at the recomendation of philosophlie I decided to basket and net him. As a modification I decided to cut a hole in the bottom of a pint sized Chinese food container, flip it upside down, and encapsulate the Yumas until they get settled in. A only after a few minutes the one Yuma moved back down towards the plug. So it seems like for now it's a success.

Philosophile....do you recommend that I keep my tank lighting basically blue, or can can I introduce a blue and white mix. Right now my intensity is basically as low as it can go...10%. I think I will wait at least a week, before I start to ramp up the intensity.

 

[philosophile]

If you want to change the light to more white, go for it, but if right now it likes the light I wouldn't change it. I've noticed that my superman yuma likes it much dimmer than most tanks are.

If you're willing to feed it something, that could help it recover faster. Soak a small pellet food in some selcon for a few minutes and then turn off the pump and put it on the shroom. It should eat it right up after a few minutes. Just a couple pellets will be enough. Don't over do it. I try to feed mine about once a week.

 

[firemountain]

Gotcha on the white spectrum increase. Thanks. I have to say that the other added benefit of the Chinese food container is that it's opaque....which filters the light a bit during acclimation.

Also...I mixed up a weak solution of Reef Roids and manually squired the solution into the Chinese food container that surrounds them. They all seem to like it so far.....plus the food container keeps the shrimp and hermits from annoying them while they get acclimated to their environment.

For the long term ; in the area where my Yumas garden will go, I think I am going to take some rock rubble and spread it out on my fine sand bed. When I get past the two week hump, I will put the Yumas which are on the plugs, onto that area so when they grow, they have something substantial to attach to.

 

[philosophile]

That's a reasonable plan. Just make sure you don't have any sand stirring critters that might bury them. Sometimes even a nassarius snail too close could dump a bunch of sand on them. I have a diamond goby, and he just throws the sand everywhere.

 

[firemountain]

Looks like Superman is dead.

Looks like Superman is dead.

Well, after having the Yumas covered for a few days after a Reef Roid feeding, they were all looking good. I began to notice the sand bed area inside the container to have this buildup from the leftover feeding, so I decided to remove the container and give them some flow. I also decided to SLIGHTLY increase the intensity and white color on my controller.

That worked out well for two days, the polyps were starting to extend further....BUT then I noticed that my one Skunk cleaner shrimp start to mount him. What began out and looked liked a cleaning, turned into an aggressive pulling. It looked like he wanted to pick at him...which he proceeded to do. :angryfire:

I then covered all of the 3 Yuma's in the Chinese food container again. I have to say tha the Superman looks bad now. Color is not as vibrant, and I see a lot of white in between the polyps....but it's not slimy.

Now I am at a loss...don't know what else to do....if there is anything at this point. I am just going to let it be for now, and see what happens. Any thoughts.

 

[philosophile]

Make sure you feed those skunks good and well before you feed anything else. They pull food out of everything from acans and scolys, to nems and mushrooms. I wouldn't give up on the shrooms, they are remarkably hardy to injury.

 

[firemountain]

Make sure you feed those skunks good and well before you feed anything else. They pull food out of everything from acans and scolys, to nems and mushrooms. I wouldn't give up on the shrooms, they are remarkably hardy to injury.

Definitely not going to give up on the Superman. Ironically enough....it's still showing it's color and is still attached. For now it's protected so the skunks can't get to them. I actually did feed the skunks good the other day after my last post. Kinda realize now that I am going to have to feed them a bit more often.

What I think happened was that when I originally lifted the food container (after seeing the leftover nutrients on the sandbed that surrounded the mushrooms) the shrimp realized the area was a prime spot to clean and went to town.

When I get home tonight in an hour, I will see how the Yuma is doing. Seeing how well the other mushrooms are doing, I am not going to count the Superman out! It's amazing how much care I have put into the Yumas...but then again, they are definitely one of my favorite.