oh no!! whats wrong with my plate coral? XP w/pics

[adee]

It swells up really big

its "mouth".. we have fed it a few times

then a couple hours later it looks like this

then a few hours after that it looks 'normal' with long tentacles... i did move it away from the glass but it still looks shriveled up. Is it possibly a calcium problem in the tank? Otherwise our water parameters are great...

 

[spanko]

When they feed the tentacles will retract to bring the food to the mouth. They will also expel waste when retracted. As long as it is blowing back up you are fine. That is a nice one by the way.

 

[adee]

Originally Posted by spanko
http:///forum/post/2960362
When they feed the tentacles will retract to bring the food to the mouth. They will also expel waste when retracted. As long as it is blowing back up you are fine. That is a nice one by the way.
phew!! thank goodness. Thank you for the compliment on it

i would be really upset if it died!

 

[coastie5685]

yes adee lol... my rock anemone does this too.. it will shrivel and almost look completely dead..
next thing i know it spews waste out of the mouth then next morning its big and opened up bathing in the light.

 

[uberlink]

hopefully your plate will be okay, but they are hard to keep, in my experience. Very delicate and prone to injury.

 

[sickboy]

Yes this is normal, mine puffs up and then shrivels up all the time. I have had it in the tank for about 8 months now, but I don't really expect to have it much longer as they do not do well in aquariums. This is why I switched from synthetic sea salt to evaporated. Mine was a present, I wouldn't have bought it after reading about it...
Yours looks good though!! Its brighter than mine. What lights are you running?

 

[adee]

i actually took a couple more pictures of it last night.. it got all big and puffy again and then deflated. now it looks normal this morning. That really stinks that they dont typically do well, i love my plate coral!
We have two 50/50, 65 watt coralife bulbs (actinic and white)... my tank is a 37 gallon its kinda tall so the lights have to actually go pretty far to reach it. From what ive been told its inadequate lighting but everything I have in there seems to be doing quite well with the exception of the weird stuff the plate coral does.
I wish I could get decent pictures of it at night when its all lit up, its sooo neat!
heres the pictures from last night

see how blown up it is.. but the weird thing is the tentacles are all pewny and weird looking..