Candy Cane Skeleton

skinless85

skinless85

Member
Within the last couple days, 1 head of my candy canes has started to show his skeleton. Its under PC's in a 29 biocube but about 2 or 3 inches from the surface. Ive had them for about 4 months now and no problems up until now. It still opens at night and eats so should i be worried?
PH is 8
Ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, phosphates are 0
calcium is 420
salinity is 1.023
KH is 9
Temp is 80
 
nuro

nuro

Member
how much lighting wattage, someone correct me if im wrong, but i thought canycanes were primarily photosynthetic
 
katsafados

katsafados

Active Member
They are. But I have candy canes under PC'S 2x40watt and mine are doing great. As long as you have them towards the top they are fine! Plus my tanks a 10g so the light has a easy time penetratinf the water surface. My candy's have been growing a lot lately, they seem to really benifit from spot feedings. I put a syringe (with no needle) close to it and squirt chunks of food at it untill it closes up on it. It's been working for me%%
 
melypr1985

melypr1985

Member
I have a candy cane also under pcs and it is doing fantastic! it's been growing really well, until I got some peppermint shrimp! they started to eat it! it will recover but i would look at your inhabitants and see if anybody might be picking on it.
 
skinless85

skinless85

Member
Thanks for all the help. Ill just keep doing what i have been and see what happens. I havent seen anything picking at it and i feed them every other day or so. So will the flesh grow back after a while?
 
melypr1985

melypr1985

Member
Originally Posted by Skinless85
http:///forum/post/3124803
Thanks for all the help. Ill just keep doing what i have been and see what happens. I havent seen anything picking at it and i feed them every other day or so. So will the flesh grow back after a while?
it depends on what actually happened to it. but if the rest of your tank is doing well, and the rest of the coral looks good then it should heal itself in time.
 
skinless85

skinless85

Member
The rest of the tank is doing fine so ill just wait and see what happens with it. It looks worse at night when it extends itself (skeleton is more visible on the shaft and on the head) but the tenticles still come out and it still takes in food when i feed it. During the day there is only 1 spot that is visible of the skeleton.
 
john57

john57

Member
I have pc lights as well on my candycane. When I added another powerhead, the increased flow caused some recession of the tissue on a couple heads but it seemed to gradually adjust to the flow. And the tissue seemed to look a little shrunken the first couple of months I had it. But it looks great now. Mine love mysis. Every other day feeding.
 
skinless85

skinless85

Member
The powerhead thing might actually be the problem. I moved one of the powerheads to direct more flow to my torch so it could be the change that messed the candy cane up. He looked much better last night and ive been feeding him a little mysis every night and dosing my tank with marine snow. I cant see the skeleton as much and actually seems bigger when the main lights are on during the day. Thanks for the help and ill keep everybody up to date...
 
d-man

d-man

Member
Originally Posted by MachInFrontOfU
http:///forum/post/3124389
this coral doesn't do well in aquariums should be kept in the ocean

I got the bad one for 5$ form the lfs because I know I'll save it, it's all ready doing better (1 1/2 weeks) I'll try to get a newer pic up latter. What I do is feed them peaces of shrimp. After they get used to eating chunks of food you can feed a peace of shrimp about half of the head size but doing this will jack up your bio-load real hard so I don't know about doing it in a 10gal.
I pick up any candy cane coral I see doing bad get them back to life and trade them in for store credit, I have made about 100$ credit in the last 3 months!!! pays for my salt at least.

 
braydonosu

braydonosu

Member
This may be a stupid question, but how do Candy Canes reproduce? I guess the question extends to all LPS corals. I know polyps will just bud off new polyps, and sps corals will just keep branching/growing and they can drop off copies of themselves. I know encrusting lps's just keep encrusting, but how do Frogspawn/hammer/candy canes reproduce/grow.
 
melypr1985

melypr1985

Member
Originally Posted by braydonosu
http:///forum/post/3128517
This may be a stupid question, but how do Candy Canes reproduce? I guess the question extends to all LPS corals. I know polyps will just bud off new polyps, and sps corals will just keep branching/growing and they can drop off copies of themselves. I know encrusting lps's just keep encrusting, but how do Frogspawn/hammer/candy canes reproduce/grow.
well, candy canes tend to split themselves and multiply like that. I've seen frogspawn attach tenticles to the rock elsewhere and then detach from the main coral and start growing from that new spot. I dont know about hammer corals. I would assume they keep branching.
 
katsafados

katsafados

Active Member
frogspawn branch also. I have new heads branching right now off the base of the existing one. I'm pretty sure hammer's do the same since they are in the same family, just have a different shape. Canbdy canes do split also.
 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
Originally Posted by MachInFrontOfU
http:///forum/post/3124389
this coral doesn't do well in aquariums should be kept in the ocean
I think the person who told you that was pulling your chain. cany cane are incredibly hardy corals and tend to fare very well in closed systems.
IMO one of the leading causes in rescession of candy cane corals is too much laminar flow it tends to press the coral flesh against the skeleton and creat internal cuts.
it may also be water or light or diet related, they do feed organismally and handily benifit from spot feeding. its hard to peg down a cause with so little information.
 
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