What causes ricordea to shrink?

[MikeTR]

I don't feed them directly. There are a few in the mix that are sticky and will catch the occasional piece of something, but I don't notice if they eat it or not.

 

[MikeTR]

They are getting about 150-200 par and my flow is 2 x mp40s on reef crest 75% most of the day.

 

[Sleepiness]

I noticed a shrinking only to find out my peppermint shrimp was munching down on it. He was not eating the foot, just the bubble polyps. He is in the sump now.

 

[Whiterabbitrage]

MikeTR
What do you mean by " nutrient problems"? Nitrate in the water I'm guessing, since you don't spot feed yours...
Your collection is so healthy looking. I'm envious. Have you ever kept any neon ones? They seem to be more sensitive.

 

[Nano sapiens]

I've had Rics in my Nano since day one (6 years ago), but some from a previous tank are over 15 years old.

Both Floridas and Yumas can inflate to over 5"" when conditions are to their liking (moderate lighting, lower flow). Rics do not do well when subjected to high flow. Ideally, the current should just gently lift the Ric's oral disk as you can see in this older video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZAqy4t4Qlo

As far as nutrients go, this tank typically registers '0' for both NO3 (nitrate) and PO4 (inorganic phosphate), but no tank with life in it is really at '0'. No mechanical or chemical filtration is used and the Rics are not fed directly since they grow/multiply too fast as it is. I also use a few drops of concentrated Iodine a week since I'm an 'Old School' reefer

 

[justthewife]

Gorgeous!!!!!!! How many do you have?

 

[Nano sapiens]

About 20 or so. Some have 2 or 3 mouths, so the number keeps increasing

 

[joshky]

I noticed one of mine shrinking (badly), it was beside of a rhodactis that's getting rather large. I moved it last night and it's already happy again, despite being a bit bleached out from the stress.

 

[Bmgrocks]

ensuring your ricordea don't get light starved (crowded out and shaded) by other rics, is def helpful to ensuring they don't do the "shrink and fade"

 

[SoFloReefer]

The only in my tank that are shrinking are doing so from lack of light. I am making changes and hopefully will have the issue resolved soon.

 

[dattong]

I have a huge colony of ricordia placed up high in a led lit tank. I would say mine loves strong light. The color is intense and they grow pretty fast for ricordia (not regular mushroom rate you see). They definitely don't like direct flow though.

 

[madadi]

Nano sapiens what kind of salt do you use

 

[atteb66]

So very beautiful, I just love Rics but mine were not doing well and just shrinking. I sold the 4 of them to a fellow reefer last night so very sad to see them go but my pico just is not the right type of conditions for them. I don't have any fish tank is to small so nutrients a big issue. I have decided to just do my Mini Max Anemone and my Rock Flower Anemone I can direct feed these guys and are so much fun, the colors they come in are unreal so are the price tags. But I do still love Rics and thanks for posting yours they are beautiful.

 

[Tzwizzle]

I've got a new tank and started with all dry rock. Both my rics and zoas are slowly dying at the bottom of the tank. Nitrates are near 0. My opinion is like some have mentioned is that both these corals like nutrient rich/mature systems. My old tank had no problem keeping zoas or rics and I started with live rock.

 

[Nano sapiens]

Nano sapiens what kind of salt do you use

A blend of 50/50 MicrobeLift and Instant Ocean.

 

[Nano sapiens]

I've got a new tank and started with all dry rock. Both my rics and zoas are slowly dying at the bottom of the tank. Nitrates are near 0. My opinion is like some have mentioned is that both these corals like nutrient rich/mature systems. My old tank had no problem keeping zoas or rics and I started with live rock.

Yes, both will benefit from having some nutrients in the water and fish are a great way to supply those system nutrients. Give both of them more light, especially the Zoas. Target feed them 2-3x/week. Zoas usually don't actively feed, but squirt them with some seafood juice and/or amino acids and feed the Rics something like Mysis, small fish pieces, small pellets, flakes, etc.

 

[jathan_innerarity]

nano what lighting system are you running? I have encountered the same problems as you guys. The mushrooms in the same plane are huge and having a grand time but the ric is slowly fading.

 

[Nano sapiens]

nano what lighting system are you running? I have encountered the same problems as you guys. The mushrooms in the same plane are huge and having a grand time but the ric is slowly fading.

I have a cobbled together LED setup consisting of two strips of DIY 'Full Spectrum' LEDs (no optics) for punch and a few Ecoxotic Stunner Strips for coverage.

Discosoma 'Shrooms don't need or want too much light so if they are doing well, but the Rics are fading away, the Rics likely need more light

 

[elitegc]

I had a ballast go bad on my halides, so I made the swap to led, and my rics seem to be much happier.

 

[SantaMonica]

I've experienced shrinkage when the water was filtered too much. But as mentioned above you can just feed more to offset this.