Need helping nursing this Owl Eye, please!

praisethel

praisethel

Member
Hey Everyone,
I'm posting this for my friend that keeps this owl eye in his tank. It has been shrinking up over the past few weeks. He says his calcium is a little high at 450, his alk is a little low at 7 dkh. His temp is 78.6 and his salinity is 1.023 or so. He does not feed it anything special. Any tips for him? Thanks!!!
 
joshh81

joshh81

Member
Mine eats frozen mysis like its going out of style. I had to kinda trick him the first time though. I went and got a small bottle of Phyto-feast (phytoplankton thats kept cold) and mixed it in with a half of a cube of frozen mysis. Squirt with a baster just a tiny little bit, more juice than mysis if possible right by its mouth. Wait about 3 or 4 minutes and you should see its mouth start to kinda open. Then very gently squirt the mysis shrimp right by its mouth and you will see little tenticles come out and grab it.
Also, raise the salinity just a tad and keep it well lit too. I found if I left mine at the bottom, it didnt get as big during the day as when I put it up higher near the light. I fed him everyday just a little bit, and now hes HUGE!
Just keep feeding him little by little and keep him close to the light. He should bounce back. :jumping:
Mine was about 3-4 inches in diameter when I got him. Today hes about 8-10 inches in diameter
 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
his specific gravity should be 1.024-1.025, other than that try joshes feeding and light reccomendations they sound good to me.
 
randyk

randyk

New Member
Cynarina Lacrymalis -
I am the owner friend. The coral was opening during the day to about an 8 inch diameter, and the feeler tentacles were coming out at night until about 2 weeks ago. Since then it has continually become smaller and the tentacles no longer appear at night. It does not eat mysis shrimp or other food anymore. It appears to me that it's mouth disappeared.
 
teen

teen

Active Member
the tentacles that came out were feeder tantacles. did you ever get it to eat, or it stopped eating?
 
randyk

randyk

New Member
Does anyone have any other ideas? The coral is getting worse. I haven't seen the feeder tentacles in a month now.
Thanks,
Randy
 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
your not seeing the tentacles because the mouth and tentacles have receeded, they are not there any more, spot feeding isnt going to save it at this point, looking at the picture I have no Idea why I only thought of this now. its surviving on photosythesis alone right now, so the best thing you can do is slowly move it higher. do this slowly so you dont shock it and bleach and kill it without its zooxanthellae its done for. but as I was saying move it up so it gets the most out of its photo period as possible, if you have a tank that you can throw it in to get 24hour light do it. it may be able to recover enough to regrow a small portion of mouth and a tentacle or two. I have to be honest at this point I think your fighting a losing battle. try dosing with Mark weiss coral vital, (people are going to scream snake oil) but it does have many easily absorbable elements in it that may help your coral recover. Do frequent water changes (as in above and beyond what you normally do) just to keep the water pristine. 99% of coral problems come from stress so you want to keep its environment as stress free as possible. try not to change too much in your tank (read as change nothing other than water) I hope you can save it. I hate losing corals.
 
randyk

randyk

New Member
Thanks for the advice. I was pretty sure it was a lousing battle but I will fight on anyways. I raised the coral a few inches about two weeks ago and it seems to have gotten worse. There are now some hard white calcerous growths between the flesh and much less flesh. I will bring it closer to light. I also found a small feathery (No, not an aptasia) growth on one side the skeleton and I think that is what is killing it.
 
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