candy coral help please

[groucheux]

I've attached two pictures of my candy coral. the first was taken about 2 weeks ago...looking pretty good. Then I got home today and it looks like a chunk has been taken out?! Is this a predator or a lighting problem? I have a 55 gallon with 160 watts. I only have a clarkii, a couple of damsels and a bar goby in the tank. I'm adding iodine and coral vite once a week.
Any help would be appreciated.
thanks...grouch
okay...I haven't added the pictures because I don't know how (they're on my desktop) but I did "attach" them?
thanks..grouch

 

[dburr]

They look alittle deflaited which is normal, but, I see some skelliton, which is not good.
Post the paramiters and heat and SG.
Dan

 

[groucheux]

my heater is set on 82, the sg is 1.021. As for parameters, I only own a cheap kit...pH, nitrates, ammonia, etc, but everything checks out perfectly with it. Like I said, it has been doing great for a week and a half or so, and then today it looks like it's missing a quarter or so.

 

[jugger]

sure looks like a chunck of it was taken out....looks like phiscal abuse some how.... but i wouldnt worry to much candys are very hardy and they will regrow the tissue fast.... when i got mine almost all the heads had some serious tissue damage but with in 2 weeks they looked very healthy..... iv also seen the tissue die off completely and then grow back eventually.... good luck

 

[flamingkingofhe]

sg is a little low i would raise it to at least 1.024 and 1.025 would be even better
i have a candy cane and had a large sg fluctuation do to a technical problem and that caused it to do what yours is doing it has been about 6 months since then and has recovered nicely but the part where the tissue receded has not grown back but the coal is great
i would recommend a feeding of krill or something meaty around once a week i do this and mine loves it and continually grows because of it also i have heard of coral vite but dont have a clue what is in it so i would keep up the iodine and also add cal. and strontium and molybednium (sp).
and maybe give them as much light as possible also how much flow are they in and under what type of light?

 

[dattong]

I've had my candy can for more than 7 months now. It's pretty hardy. I didn't add anything thing into my tank except calcium for the past 5 months and do 10% water change every two weeks. It's been very healthy. So I guess good water quality is enough to keep this coral. I don't even target feed it, but I can see it has grown quite a bit. I think 5% water change weekly would help a lot, no need to add expensive liquids.

 

[overanalyzer]

I would second the idea that youy don't need to add iodine or anything. I keep one plus two Candy Cane frags and mine deflates a head or two once in a blue moon - but the only time the skeleton shows through is when it gets physically damaged

 

[groucheux]

thanks for the reassurance. I checked it today and it looks like about half the skeleton is gone now (but the lights just came on a couple hours ago). I have it towards the very top of my tank...surely it's not getting too much light?! Should I consider moving it?
It was only about a $10 frag, but it is the first non-mushroom or polyp coral that I've had.
thanks again...grouch

 

[bang guy]

It looks starved to me. What are you feeding, how much, and how often?

 

[jarvis]

I would say get a friking alk and Ca test kit! They look pinched to me by the rock on the right where it doesnt have the ability to open up. I have a colony that I bought with a few dead heads and I broke them apart and reglued it together to make a nice colony. It looked a little funny for a while. Kinda grew like a tumor till they had enough space. I would guess pinched by a rock would cause death eventually. I also agree with bang about starvation especially if its a new tank.