Sick Bubble Coral?

[mudplayerx]

Greetings,
Does anyone know if bubble corals are more sensitive to any sort of changes or chemistry than other corals? My entire tank is doing fine including galaxea, xenia, shrooms, zoos, pipe-organ, flowerpots, star polyps, cbs, saron shrimp, green brittlestar, hermits, etc.
My parameters are:

• Specific Gravity - 1.026
• Temperature - 78-80 (wintertime)
• Ammonia - 0
• Nitrate - 0
• Nitrite - 0
  Phosphates - 0
  ph - 8.3
  Calcium - 400
  Alkalinity - 7 (whatever is perfect according to Salifert, I think it is 7)

Now a little background on the bubble coral and its current state. I got it about 7 months ago and it has since doubled in size...maybe even tripled. It has always been in good health as I feed it regularily with shrimp, squid, or fish. I have it in a nice low-flow area with medium lighting on the bottom of the tank (metal halide).
After my last feeding the coral acted as usual, secreting mucus all over the food and drawing it into its "mouth." However, overnight its behavior became strange and has remained so for about 3-4 days. The coral is deflated and droopy. It is normal for bubble corals to deflate, but the droopiness was very alarming. It has since stopped the severe drooping but still will not return to its former glory. In fact it stays deflated the majority of the time now.
Help me please. It's my girlfriend's favorite coral in my tank and I'll never hear the end of it if I kill it.

 

[jacknjill]

well,i know that my bubble coral would deflate for no reason at all every once in a while, just to poo i think, but only for a short amount of time. i think they are more sensitive to changes though, because they inflate themselves with the water so it probably affects them more than the other corals. one time i dosed my tank with something not good, and everything else was fine, but my bubble coral melted. nothing else ever showed signs of being affectecd.

 

[dogstar]

"" Alkalinity - 7 ""
What do you mean by this....
7 dkH is very too low and 7 ppm is very too high, so.........

 

[ck_503]

do you spot feed them or do you just put shrimp in hoping that they grab a few?

 

[mudplayerx]

I probably told you the wrong number. I have the salifert alkalinity test kit and the results always come out to what they should be for a reef tank. I'll test it when I get home and post the reading. I dose kalkwasser and do weekly 5% changes so chemistry is almost always the same.
I spot feed all of my corals. I turn all the waterflow off and hand feed each and every coral. The bubble coral gets finely cut pieces which I drop right onto the feeder tentacles. My tank is only a 4 foot long 55 gallon so it is very easy for me to spot feed everythig by hand. The only things I use a feeding prong for are the giant green brittlestar and the CBS because they tend to hide a little bit during feeding.

 

[milomlo]

How exactly do you feed a bubble coral? I try to feed mine but I don't know if I am doing it right. At night when the bubble are deflated are you suppose to put food in that big hole thing "is that the mouth"? Or do you just squirt food on the tenticles?
I take my homemade food (which is frozen), thaw it in a cup with some tank water and use a pippet (ms) to feed. But I don't know if it is getting enough

 

[texasex]

I have a bubble coral in a 29 gallon tank. I feed my whole tank a couple of times a week with microvert (I have quite a few mushrooms and other softies). I have heard that they like the occasional frozen food, which I put in a couple of times a month. That is all that I do. I have had it now for about six months and it has doubled in size! Someone else might have a better regiment, but my guy isn't complaining! By the way, they are extremely sensitive to being touched, or change. I accidentally touched mine a couple of times when I decided to rearrange my tank and clean it. I shrivled and stayed mad at me for 2 days. It also released a ton of stringy slimy stuff that I had to fish out of my tank. It was, of course, upsetting all of the other inhabitants of the tank! But, to make a long story short (too late!), it is back to it's former glory and happy as ever!

 

[mudplayerx]

This is a slightly older thread, but my bubble coral has since revovered. I think it was low alkalinity, which was fixed.