PDA

View Full Version : Is it too soon to be worried?


PGerringer
03/16/2007, 12:53 PM
Long time lurker, first time purchaser of soft coral. :)

I've been following the reef plan found on this forum for my 12 G Nano-Tank. First day I added live rock. It worked out great. Nice pods, a few feather worms, good algae growth. 4 weeks later I added snails and crabs. Pods are flourishing well, algae going nuts but snails and crabs doing their job nicely. All the levels look perfect. Now at week 6 its time to add the coral. Course, I don't want to mess up what I have...

Soooo, I order the nano soft coral pack from Fosters and Smith: http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=2033 I know its normal that if you put any living organism in a bag for 24 hours they are going to get stressed. So, I was prepared for the cloudy water and a little sliming. What I wasn't prepared for was 3 cloudy bags and one bag of cloudy coffee. I say coffee cause that's exactly what it looked like. Panicking, I called F&S and they said it could be the color of the "boot" added or the coral used its defense mechanism and "ink" the water. She didn't use the word "inked" but I figured that was the best way to describe it. She explained how some soft coral secrete this stinking liquid to defend itself, whatever. Anyway, she told me not to worry. Acclimate the coral, give them a few days to get back their color (all 4 pieces appeared ruddy brown) and then call them back. So, I acclimated them and reluctantly put them in the tank.

This morning I had what looked to be 3 recovering and 1 quite sad camper. What appears to be green mushroom coral seems to be perking up. It's still a little slimy but good otherwise. One piece of leather coral is now a nice tan color. No budding, but no sliming either. Then there is a piece of rock which seems to have an unidentified mushrooms attached to it. They are a little darker than they were but no sliming. The one I'm really worried about was the one that came in the "coffee" water. It looks kinda like a piece of small brain. I can't seem to identify it. It's ruddy brown and doesn't appear to be sliming.

The sales rep described coral dying. She said it will look like a candle melting. The piece of coral I'm worried about still has form and doesn't appear to be "melting." This brings me to my first question:

What does a soft coral actually look like when it is "melting." Can someone give a better description?

So far, I'm pretty happy with the selection sent. It was certainly cheaper than my LFS and, even though the above sounds bad, the soft coral looks better than my LFS. I just hope it lives. Which brings me to my last question:

Is it too soon to be worried about the coral?

I'll try to make some pics this weekend and upload them. Thanks for the help.

michaeldaly
03/16/2007, 01:50 PM
If a soft coral is dying it is quite noticeable, and it will happen very fast, it will become all squishy and rot away. You can smell it, a rotting coral really stinks.

Jamokie01
03/17/2007, 01:54 AM
Problem is when ordering a "package" you have no idea what you just got. And if you cant tell us what it is we cant tell you what it should look like. So unless you can tell us exactly what it is or get those pics up, we cant really advise you on what to do.

Nagel
03/18/2007, 07:45 AM
Ok, soft corals melt.. LPS corals (i.e. the "brain") wouldn't melt. If its a brain, when it dies, the "colored" flesh will just waste away / peel off, and leave a white skeleton underneath.

As for corals melting, think of a little pile of pine needles, now shrink that down about 10x. Thats the kind of pile a melted soft coral leaves.

PGerringer
03/18/2007, 07:55 PM
Just to update you guys (I still don't have pics)... One of the 4 coral groups is thriving. The rest is a mess. Tomorrow I'll try to post pics and call F&S to see what can be done.

One good thing though is that the levels in the tank seems to be stable.