Alright. Flower Pot Question

[kwiknezy1]

OK, i purchased a flower pot about 3 months ago. It was doing excellent, then i started noticing that small patches started missing. then after about a month it got worse, so i moved the flower pot to my QT but then i noticed that it was progressively getting worse..
Now after 3 months of having the flower pot in my tank it looks like Mr. T..I sat up one night with the moon lights on and a 3 watt LED flashlight in hand to see what the problem was. THE FREAKING CRABS ARE EATING THE DARNED THING. Hermit crabs, and also 2 sally lightfoots. they was going to town on the thing, also when i placed the flower pot in my QT i have crabs in there also. Is this normal, or just a completely random freak of nature going on isside my tank. Everything is well fed. Also it is not die off, the crabs are eating it like it was a peice of black angus steak. Whats up with this???

 

[kwiknezy1]

Oh yeah. Here is pics of the well eaten flowerpot..

Sorry no pics of the crabs dining on the darned thing

 

[petjunkie]

Honestly they are most likely eating it as it dies, flowerpots usually don't make it too long in captivity.

 

[kwiknezy1]

Originally Posted by petjunkie
Honestly they are most likely eating it as it dies, flowerpots usually don't make it too long in captivity.

well i dont understand.. 3 months...hmmmm when the thing was all the way opened it was almost an 8" diameter. they was on it while it was opened. all i know is it looks really funky now..

 

[miaheatlvr]

Originally Posted by KwikNezy1
Oh yeah. Here is pics of the well eaten flowerpot..

Sorry no pics of the crabs dining on the darned thing
Flower pots are one of the most difficult corals to maintain LONG TERM, it could be a number of things. Was that one dyed?

 

[stanlalee]

thats exactly how most (including my attempt) die. they look great for a while then they start retracting less and less until they die. Hardly any live past the 1yr mark in captivity. the accepted required husbandry for most probable success is a large aquarium with established deep sandbed and large refugium. Good results have been reported supplementing DT oyster eggs to assist feeding. there are about two dozen different species of flowerpot and many have different light and feeding needs. goniopora stokesi feeds readily and is supposely nearly impossible to maintain/feed long term. if you could would likely foul up your water quality. others wont accept direct feeding at all. there are alot of theories from unknown missing ingredient in seawater not in synthetic, to lack of iron supplementing to inability to feed long term. If you google them there are alot of good articles on it. adv aquarist has a few.

 

[kwiknezy1]

Well it sucks, because i really love these corals.. they are really beautiful... I guess from this day forward ill leave it to the sea to take care of the awesome creatures. Sorry for the death of a beautiful organism

 

[john a]

WE CALL THOSE (RENT-A-CORALS) you dont buy them you rent them for about 3 monts and they die

 

[petjunkie]

Yeah it is unfortunate we can't keep them alive, this one is just passing on, if it had been one specific crab eating it I would have believe predation but as all the crabs are finding it yummy, it must smell like dying flesh. There's a website devoted to trying to keep them that has lots of good info.