Bubble Coral

[parmoffitt]

I have a bubble coral not doing well. It just will not swell up. It has retracted in one half of it's skeleton. I have a dragon sand sifting goby dumping sand all of the corals and bubble. Most pictures of the bubbles I see in this website have been placed on the sand. Should I pick him up and put him on a ledge? I have a 90gal reef with sump and Metal Halide lights. I feel the substrate the goby is dumping on him is the problem. Any ideas? :thinking:

 

[paulcoates]

You may want to keep it on a ledge in the bottom of your tank. It is possible that the Bubble wont do well that close to the high output of Halides. Monitor how it does for the first few days to see if it works out well

 

[parmoffitt]

Thank you for your responce. I'll shake all the substrate out of him and try to find a spot not close to the lights.

 

[oceana]

I keep mine up about mid tank with no problems.
The many reason I dont keep a sand sifter is because i hate how they throw sand all oevr the tank.
they are great for the sand but man some of them sure are messy

 

[parmoffitt]

I wish I never had bought that sand sifting goby. He makes a huge mess all over my tank.
No offense intended to sand sifting goby lovers.

 

[lfs_worker]

what do you feed your bubble? what current is it in?
IMO bubble coral eat krill, snails , and silversides for me and mine grows like CRAZY!
they also dont like very much current al all the bubbles should bounce lightly.
One more thing check for Nitrogen bubbles under the flesh.
Good luck
Brian

 

[mister t]

i put my bubble about mid on my rock he's happy ,i have 260 pc comp.

 

[jja]

I have had a bubble for about 4 years now and it got so big I almost got rid of it. I never directly fed it but it always managed to get food and wrap up on it at feeding time. However, about 3 months ago it shrunk up to about 1/4 of it's size and looked very unhappy. This lasted for about 2 1/2 months and now it seems to be getting bigger by the day although not quite what it was yet. A guy at the lfs that I actually trust (they have a bubble about 3 foot by 4 foot in a display that is 12 years old) told me this is not that unusual. Be patient. Also, mine sits on the bottom and when fully expanded is about 13 by 9. How long have you had it?

 

[tthemadd1]

I have had a huge hair algae outbreak as of late and I noticed that the skeleton has some algae on it. My bubble hasnt been fully expanded for about a week. Should I pull the algae off? I also havent seen the little tenticles out in awhile. I think that he is alittle ticked off about the algae... Does it irritate the skin?
Thanks for the info and sorry to hijack your thread...
themadd1

 

[parmoffitt]

I have had my bubble for 5 months. It has been moved to the middle of the tank on a ledge that the goby can't dump substrate on. I feed the tank with cyclopeeze and haven't tried to spot feed it. Maybe I should but guessed that the bubble could get food on it's own with the cyclopeeze. :notsure:

 

[tthemadd1]

I usually drop some mysid shrimp on mine a few times a week. Opens right up and dumps it in the mouth. Good luck with yours...

 

[dragonboy]

For my experience with them they look full open on some days and some days they don't open up all the way. And yeah they don't like too much flow and high intensity light so a moderate condition is what keeps them happy.