Australian Duncan Coral

[gulfstream]

I recently added a very large colony of duncans into my
well stablished reef tank.
However,the beauty of it only lasted for about a week......
what once was a nice coral to look at,has now become frustraiting
as it has not open its polips for almost 5 days......
I have tested ALK/CA/PH and all the par which one must always check for survival and balance of system,have also moved the colony to various spots in the tank and have taken care of flow
and lighting requirements all to no avails....
Is there anything about This corals I did not know or is there
any requirements it needs which I might be lacking?
I would hate to see this specimen perish not to mention the high
cost of this coral.
any ideas?
thanks
PS.....
All other corals are doing wonderful.

[ladybug5234]

Have you tried spot-feeding it? If you havent, turn off all pumps in the tank and feed it some cyclopeeze or mysis shrimp using a turkey baster. Make sure you dont blast it though.

[gulfstream]

Yes he has been getting fed.
I have tried Cyclopeeze,reefroids,Brine.......
bubble coral and Goniopora seem happy about it........
:confused: :strooper: :confused:

[silverwolf72]

they like just enough flow to move them around a little to much and at least mine and they close up.

[will16]

I have found that my duncans will from time to time just close up tight for a few days. Then open back up totally normal. Not sure why. Seems to happen every few months.

[fishysteve]

Maybe it doesn't like the fact that you keep moving it around the tank.

[RyDoggsReef]

they may have too much light. I have a 40 gall with 196wat of pc light; i have mine in the bottom of the tank in low flow. You may want to try putting em in lower lighting

[dtaylor123]

Duncans need lower light, they should be on the bottom of your tank. Duncans are very easy to grow, I started with 2 poylps and nows it's like 35 polyps. Feed them the same as you feed your Goni's and Bubble, make sure they have ample room to expand. Only thing I can think of that would be of issue in your tank is the amount of light it's getting. Best of luck.

[Chads29]

I agree with silverwolf... what is your flow like that the duncan is in? I have mine off to the side of the powerheads where it will does not get much current at all. When I had it in the current, it closed up and was not doing well at all.

[realest]

I have my Duncan about 4" inches from my 150w mh. They do fine and it does get pretty good of a flow also. But as stated above, my does close up for good few days for unknown reasons and it happen every few months.

I would say, fine a spot and leave them alone.

[dtaylor123]

This is my Duncan, it started from two polyps, it has been in my tank for 11 months. Really they can almost be anywhere they just need food.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b326/dtaylor123/Reef%20Photos/flash%20pics/duncan1029.jpg

Dan