Why is this losing color?

[mano1192]

When I recieved this coral it was all white with light blue tips. The polyps were not out at the store and have really never come out much at all. After about a month in my tank it has started to brown out, this is the only acro in my tank thats not thriving. Also worth noting there is a tiny crab living in the acro, could this actually be irritating the coral?

This is located 1/2 way in the tank under a 15k 250w. Could this be a "deep coral" that is getting too much light? Any help would be greatly appreciated.





I have a 100mm macro lense that should be delivered tomorrow, Ill try posting a pic of the crab, hes hard to see so tiny!

 

[jeffbrig]

I am interested to hear what others say. I've purchased two different wild corals that were white w/pale blue tips at the LFS, and neither kept that appearance. One RTN'd in quarantine, the other made it into the tank, bleached, started to RTN, and I fragged the heck out of it. After several months, some of the frags turned light green, while others are blue with a hint of purple from base to tip. Some of those are even mounted on the same rock! None of them look anything like the colony did when I bought it.

Makes me wonder if some of those light colored colonies with blue tips are very stressed to begin with, or if it's just a very fragile coral.

 

[cmc0814]

I would go with the white on it was just very bleached. I have seen many of them at the stores and they sell them as white. Then after a couple of days in the other persons tank, it changes color completely! I think it has colored up in your healthy tank, and it might need to be moved up. I'm no expert though...

 

[bulfraw215]

Look at it close and make sure there are no little bite marks at the base if so AEFW are the problem hope that is not the case.Good luck

 

[Serioussnaps]

A white coral is most likely bleached in the first place. I think the zooxanthellae is starting to come back in that sucker....if I were you I would give it good flow and leave it alone for a few months and see what happens. FWIW I would make a point of not buying "white" corals.

 

[dominga]

There are some good crabs that live inside the acroporas, they are in charge of cleaning debris and mucus produced by the coral.
The crab will die if is removed from the coral, the coral will not suffer any damage.
What color is the crab? the ones I know are whiteish color with black markings across the eyes. They are called Bandit crabs.

 

[twon8]

that looks like a soli or efflo, which ime need a ton of flow to color up nicely, flow being more important than lighting. as they start to grow with high flow the new growth will likely be blue/purple

 

[mano1192]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9818455#post9818455 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dominga
the ones I know are whiteish color with black markings across the eyes. They are called Bandit crabs.

I couldnt get a pick of him, but that is what the crab looks like.

The coral did not look bleached at all when I got it, the LFS also had a white w/ green tipped tabling acro that was realy nice too. I do have the coral in a high flow area. I was leaning towards putting it in lower light rather than higher light, whats your opinions?

Thanks for all your help!

 

[fijiblue]

I would guess it is not getting enough light. If it is bleaching, Zooxanthellae are not being feed enough to remain in the tissue. The coral will slowly die. I know the XM 15's are known to have weak output. HTH.

 

[JB NY]

Re: Why is this losing color?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9815189#post9815189 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mano1192
When I recieved this coral it was all white with light blue tips. The polyps were not out at the store and have really never come out much at all.

Corals should never look white in the store.

Almost a 100% chance the acro you purchased was bleached when you bought it. It is very common for that to happen to corals at the vendor or LFS. Retracted polyps are another bad sign as well.

Right now it is coloring up. Being that it was severely bleached when you acquired it , I think it is still in the recovery phase and might take a while (weeks or months) to either change color or stay that color, no guarantees there.

 

[Solitaryensis]

With regard to i.d., DEF. not soli or efflo. Looks more like a small Loripes mini colony that was once standing straight up and got put on its side. Whatever the case, I agree with the above in that it probably wasnt doing well to begin with. The ironic thing is that acros somtimes look better when they are not healthy because they will have that pastel look with baby blue/green hues. Assuming your parameters are ok, im sure it will look better in a couple weeks/months. But i dont think it would hurt to move it up a tad.

 

[Philwd]

Joe,
So you would consider the coral to be bleached even if the tips are still colorful? I had a gorgeous cerealis that had nice blue tips(~ 3/4" down) but whitish body. It slowly recessed from the base and then you could really see a color difference. It was even whiter. I still have a piece but it's now green with purple tips.

 

[JB NY]

Definitely. The color in the tips just shows that it is not fully bleached and that a recovery is possible. But still taking a big risk that it will make it. If it was fully white, I would say it's chances of survival are much lower.

 

[mano1192]

Everyone thanks for your input. I do have a bad par bulb, the Reeflux 15k, I have a XM 10k being mailed right now. I will try to move it up a tad, but I would have to believe its getting a lot of light as I have a Oregon tort mounted 1" above this acro and it is deep blue, I was under the understanding that the Oregon's need intense light to keep their deep blue color. I could place it extremely high up and see where it goes from there.

On another note the crab was out this morning and I was mistaken on the coloring of it, it has a black body with white eyes, could this be a predator?

 

[GSMguy]

is the crab smooth or hairy on its legs?

 

[mano1192]

smooth, I'll try to get a shot of it tonight with my new macro lens I got yesturday, but its such a funky angle, hard to get a good shot of him. He's no bigger than your pinky nail, and blackish body with white little beedy eyes. Everytime I look at him he hids..... I think hes got a guilty conscious!

 

[dailydriven911]

It's probably just an acro crab. They are harmless and live on acro colonies. Pics would help though