Ugh...lost two scolys in the last two months

[azkass]

I've had both, a warpaint and a bleeding apple, for about a year and they both died around the same time. Checked my water parameters and all are within range. My calcium has jumped up and down a little, the lowest around 340 but It's never stayed at that level for long periods. I'm wondering if this could have been the cause. I have two others, one for a few months and the other I got at the market over the weekend. I feed them regularly and have them in the sand with low flow. Is there something I should be doing that I'm missing?

 

[Anthrax15]

How's your salinity? Anything that could be attacking them? Clowns hosting? Did they just whither away?

 

[azkass]

Salinity is 1.025-1.026 since it's a 30 gal tank and evaporates quickly. I do have bristle worms and hermits but I don't think they are the problem. They start to slowly recede and wither away. I also have a coral bandit, peppermint and and a pair of harlequins but have never seen any of them bothering the coral.

 

[Anthrax15]

Hmmm, have you changed up or increased your lighting at all? Added more flow?

 

[tcamos]

I had a coral banded shrimp once and he did eat corals so I got rid of him. But I am thinking there's a different reason. Just as mentioned above lighting and flow were the first two things that popped into my mind. I've seen this happen with too bright of lighting or too direct flow where the tissue just recedes. Certainly it's easy to start with flow by moving them to a more sheltered area. If you have a controller for your light it might have an acclimation mode you can use to test lighting or you can shade it a bit. Just some things to try.

 

[zrogst]

Did you feed them? in my limited experience with scolys they do significantly better if target fed meaty foods.

 

[azkass]

I have since turned down my lighting and have my whites set on 25 percent for four hours and the blues at about 90. I did have an additional pump in the tank but have taken it out as I was concerned with too much flow. And yes, I do feed them regularly, Fauna Marin and mysis twice a week.

 

[evolved]

I'd still suggest backing off on the feeding a bit; try only once per week.

I'm thinking along the lines of feeding an anemone here; if you overfeed them (faster than they can digest) food tends to rot inside them, and then things quickly degrade.

 

[azkass]

I'd still suggest backing off on the feeding a bit; try only once per week.

I'm thinking along the lines of feeding an anemone here; if you overfeed them (faster than they can digest) food tends to rot inside them, and then things quickly degrade.

Very true...I was feeding heavy before which could be the reason.

 

[zibba]

I'd still suggest backing off on the feeding a bit; try only once per week.

I'm thinking along the lines of feeding an anemone here; if you overfeed them (faster than they can digest) food tends to rot inside them, and then things quickly degrade.

Agree with this. I use to be of the opinion that they could be fed anytime their feeding tenticles were out, but I think that's too often. I feed my scoly/acanthos/trachys 3-5x/month now and they seem to be doing really well.

 

[azkass]

I'm wondering if there could be stray voltage in the tank. Just a long shot but I'm going to test. Anyone have a voltage meter?