Coral question

[spencka]

Hi,
Yesterday, my daughter & I went out for a coral purchase and came back with the following items:
1 ea. Chili Coral
1ea Brain - Pink Open
1ea. Pink Tip Haitain Anemone
1ea. mushroom - but I forgot the name - I'll enclose a picture soon.
Oh, and one horse shoe crab!
The Chili doesn't look soo good today. The LFS guy said the chili prefers a darker or less lit location. When I put it in the tank (after a couple hours of acclimating), it's "arms" were rather upright & erect. This morning, all the "arms" are sagging and bunched together.
My water parameters were great Friday night, water temp. is a tad above 79 degrees. My marron clown loves the anemone, which I locate on top of the LR and it seems to be happy too.
Any idea's on the chil?
Thanks!
Steve

 

[bronco300]

hmmm...dont know anything about the chili, but lets see some pics....hope you have lots of room for your horse shoe crab....brace yourself, its coming. :thinking:

 

[oceana]

Originally Posted by spencka
Hi,
Yesterday, my daughter & I went out for a coral purchase and came back with the following items:
1 ea. Chili Coral
1ea Brain - Pink Open
1ea. Pink Tip Haitain Anemone
1ea. mushroom - but I forgot the name - I'll enclose a picture soon.
Oh, and one horse shoe crab!
The Chili doesn't look soo good today. The LFS guy said the chili prefers a darker or less lit location. When I put it in the tank (after a couple hours of acclimating), it's "arms" were rather upright & erect. This morning, all the "arms" are sagging and bunched together.
My water parameters were great Friday night, water temp. is a tad above 79 degrees. My marron clown loves the anemone, which I locate on top of the LR and it seems to be happy too.
Any idea's on the chil?
Thanks!
Steve

sounds normal for a chilli if you ask me. i had mine for a long time until i traded it. sometimes it was up sometimes down. never really seemed unhappy however.
as for your horseshoe crab i would bring it back. for one they get HUGE! two i hope you have no plans on keeping your rockwork in one place. those things are like aquarium dull dozers. not a good choice at all for about 10 other reasons i can think of. also NEVER go to a store with blinders on. when you are making a trip go for a reason and with a purchase in mind. if you get there and see something you like dont just take a stores word for it. go home and research it. if you still feel its a good choice then go back and make the purchase. you will save yoruself ALOT of greef this way. not to mention money.
gl to ya

 

[spencka]

OK, just took some quick photo's, probably should have gotten out the tripod, soe sorry about the quality.

If anyone can give me idea's on what might be wrong with the Chili (if anything), I'd appreciate it! Also, any help identifying the shroom and the type of coral in pic #008, would be great!
Thanks!
Steve

 

[reefraff]

The chilli coral is a filter feeder like the featherduster. You might need to feed photoplankton or some other filter feeder food to keep them happy.

 

[oceana]

the chilli looks fine to me. polyps are not out but that not all the odd.
the coral in pic 008 is pulsing pompom xenia. very fast grower does best with high light but lives with many lighting conditions. is known for crashing for not apparent reason.
also you should move that brain of the rocks. when the extend there flesh it can get irritated by the rock and damage the coral. best placed in the sand with med-low flow
dont be affraid to tuck the long house of your hawian duster in the rock or sand. will look beter and wont hurt it.
your shrooms are part of the giant shroom family rhodactis. will get very large and likes to eat small meaty. i feed some of mine full siver sides!!!

 

[aquaengine]

The Horse shoe crab is a tank killer. I know of 2 stories from 2 local friends who put a horse shoe crab in there tank and they never saw it again. in both cases they were medium sized crabs at about 3 in across. they can burrow into the substrate and if not fed or they just pass away for some reason than its like having a poison land mine. Ammonia and nitrates seep into the system sending it into a downward spiral. And you try for several days but the cyno bacteria keeps coming back. Things die. I saw it happen to my roommate’s tank. he lost a handful of corals, a clown, and his algae is still a problem. We ended up breaking the tank down sifting the substrate. This was done because we could see LARGE bristle worm tubes under the bottom.(looking up at the tank bottom under the stand with a flash light) think ant farm. In the process we found the carcass of the crab and it reeked. the sand in the area was thick with algae. so keep this burrowing creature out.

 

[oceana]

Originally Posted by AquaEngine
The Horse shoe crab is a tank killer. I know of 2 stories from 2 local friends who put a horse shoe crab in there tank and they never saw it again. in both cases they were medium sized crabs at about 3 in across. they can burrow into the substrate and if not fed or they just pass away for some reason than its like having a poison land mine. Ammonia and nitrates seep into the system sending it into a downward spiral. And you try for several days but the cyno bacteria keeps coming back. Things die. I saw it happen to my roommate’s tank. he lost a handful of corals, a clown, and his algae is still a problem. We ended up breaking the tank down sifting the substrate. This was done because we could see LARGE bristle worm tubes under the bottom.(looking up at the tank bottom under the stand with a flash light) think ant farm. In the process we found the carcass of the crab and it reeked. the sand in the area was thick with algae. so keep this burrowing creature out.

those are spegeti worms and they are a good thing. bristle worms dont have tubes

 

[spencka]

Well, I guess I was lucky. I did find the Horseshoe, and he was released to the wild.
Thanks!
Steve

 

[shnabbles]

How big was the horse shoe crab? I bought one a while back the size of a quarter and it didnt grow to fast at all... I believe he has died in the tank its been literally months since iv seen him and the last i saw of him was what looked like a molt....
If they did live long enough to out grow your tank, they would probally starve to death before that happend iv read they need alot of food...
How long has your tank been up and what kind of lighting do you have for that anenome?