Candy Cane

[clamps]

ok guys heres whats up i just got home from an old friends house he has a SW reef tank BUT it has bad green hair and his candy cane had suffered he had been babying it and it was looking better but he needed smokes so he said 5 bucks and i took it he said its been looking better but it doesent come out all the way and i can see a little GHA inside ...will it come out all the way at night like i heard? and where should i keep it in my tank? i got moderate lighting and good water turn over and of coarse all my testing says im ok

 

[nerdy]

It is a hard coral which usually means it needs a lot of light.
I would put it at the top of the tank.

 

[alti]

explain your lighting and tank size and ill tell you where to put it. it does not open at night. the tentacles come out, but the polyps close up. are there any dead heads or bleaching heads??

 

[clamps]

i have a 90 gal with a bacpak, and a mill 3000 ,3 powerheads(2-550s)(1-660)about 80 -90 pnds of live rock lots of soft corals doing great and growing like weeds(xenia`s,anthilia`s)sand bed substrait,i got about 250 watts of light from PC and NO- flor.. this will change in a week when i start my new hood,,,,,,there are only like 4 or 5 branches on this frag and 1 is dead but it looks like it has been for awhile,the others dont come out all the way and have alittle hair algea on the the edge of the inside of the branches(hope that makes since)is this algea keeping them from coming out all the way??cuz they stay in about 1/8 inch from the top of the branch and i know thats not right...

 

[clamps]

bump...

 

[alti]

take a pic if you can. i have mine on the bottom in my 90 gal under 4x96 watt pcs and they are splitting like crazy. mine like lower current also. keep them away from direct flow of your powerheads. if they are not doing so well you may want to get them a bit closer to the lights.

 

[alti]

try feeding them some chopped shrimp at night or in the morning when the lights are out and the tentacles are out.

 

[clamps]

yea i did that last night i feed them some shrimp but im concerned about the small amout of hair algea on the insides of the branches???is this whats keeping them from comming out in the day ??should i try and gently take it off ,they act like there irratated by the algea and wont come out past it(at least thats what it looks like) cuz the heads wont come out all the way during the day,i will get a pic when i get home im @work now
thank u ,CLAMps

 

[alti]

you should try to get the algea off, but be gentle. when i have to remove hair algea i take a long toothpick, actually its a skewer and fray the pointed edge. i stick it into the middle of the algea and twist it around a few times. iis kind of like eating spagetti. just keep twisting the stick and it should stick to it.

 

[clamps]

thank u alti ill keep u informed of how its doing ill post a pic and if it suvives ill keep posting on this mess every now and then to show its progress thank u again for your time

 

[alti]

good luck

 

[clamps]

here it is its not much to look at but for $5 i thought what the heck

 

[trompet3]

good luck with it, but it is in really bad shape. I wouldn't expect it to make it.

 

[jonthefb]

if it is hair algae, i would reccommend going to the store and buying a toothbrush, and then brush the algae away and off of the coral head. the algae is definately what is preventing this little guy from opening. my candy developed some hair algae growth in-between stalks as well and the problem got so bad that the algae totally covered several polyps. by usign the toothbrush i was able to successfully remove all teh hair algae and the polyps are now out and are doing fine!
good luck and keep us posted!
jon

 

[bosco0633]

how hard are the candy cane corals to keep. I really think that they look good. I am interested in purchasing some new ones.

 

[mlm]

They are not that hard to keep. Just give them a lot of light moderate current and feed them a coupl times a week when the tentacles are out (night) and they will grow and split and you can frag them.

 

[musipilot]

I had a hair algae problem with my blue caulerstra, but I picked it up from the base with tongs and held it under a powerhead for a few seconds to blow the hair off. The coral has never had the algae problem again, and is flourishing.