Acan!! lord help!

[whipit]

I have had these 2 Acans for months now maybe close to a year. I have never seen them extend I have tried to feed them with no luck. the flesh doesn't even puff up they just sit there. all my other corals are doing fantastic my Blasto's are plump and beautiful. I dont understand what I am doing wrong with this particular coral. their placement now is on the sandbed in a 180 gallon tank 24in deep 3x150 Mh 3x MP40es low to medium flow . they are a little fadded but they were when I won them. I have been trying to get them to improve with 0 change over the last several months. my params are
amm 0
trite 0
trate 0
ph 8
cal 420
alk 9
phos 0
any advise please...

[Reef Bass]

Haven't seen them extend for almost a year? Wow, that is unusual. Have you tried looking a couple hours after dark or an hour or so before dawn?

You're sure they're acans? You could always post a pic for confirmation.

Your water parameters look good. I would check your magnesium and get it to about 1300.

My acan polyps undergo a far amount of change every day, from near flat to very inflated and with and without tentacles extended.

Your lighting of 150w MH over a 24" deep 180 is low, but probably ok for acans (I run 400w over my 24" deep 100g sps tank, though most of my 'cans are in my 12" deep lps tank lit by 4 T5s).

What do you mean by you've tried to feed them? I agree that they won't eat if they don't want to, but I would place a thawed frozen mysis shrimp on top of a polyp and see what happens. Mine will "wake up" and consume the shrimp. It may not put tons of tentacles out all over, but that one polyp will usually ingest the food.

[whipit]

Haven't seen them extend for almost a year? Wow, that is unusual. Have you tried looking a couple hours after dark or an hour or so before dawn?

You're sure they're acans? You could always post a pic for confirmation.

My acan polyps undergo a far amount of change every day, from near flat to very inflated and with and without tentacles extended.

Your lighting of 150w MH over a 24" deep 180 is low, but probably ok for acans (I run 400w over my 24" deep 100g sps tank, though most of my 'cans are in my 12" deep lps tank lit by 4 T5s).

What do you mean by you've tried to feed them? I agree that they won't eat if they don't want to, but I would place a thawed frozen mysis shrimp on top of a polyp and see what happens. Mine will "wake up" and consume the shrimp. It may not put tons of tentacles out all over, but that one polyp will usually ingest the food.
one of them is my avatar. I get up at 3 am daily and have never seen them extended not once. I have fed mixes of just about everything mysis, brine phyoto, reef pods. target feed. I have a mixed reef with 30 odd sps's on the top and it graduates down with corals that require less light my sps's are growing like crazy so I dont think its my light I have this light http://www.aquaticlife.com/hid/index.html
I will turn off the flow and see if I can put some food on top of them and see if they do anything. thanks for the ideas. I see pic's all the time of the acans all extended and beautiful. but not mine. it makes me ill

[RokleM]

Has it been months or a year?

"Acans" are a pretty broad term for a number of items. Not all "acans" actually puff up or inflate per say. Most people immediately think acan lords, which are very fleshy, puff up during the day, extend feeders frequently especially when food hits the water, etc. That however is only one kind. Another very common acan is the echinata, which displays very little of those characteristics. The flesh stays pretty close to the skeleton (although there is some minor inflation), does not extend it's feeders as readily, and typically just "sits there" as you said.

So a few things first. You didn't list one of the most important parameters to LPS, magnesium. Get a good kit and get that tested ASAP (I prefer Elos). Secondly, is there any signs of recession at all? Any spots you see the skeleton where it wasn't before? You mentioned a decent amount of flow, do they have sand blowing around/on them? Last but not least, if you can get a picture we can give you an idea of their general health and what exactly you have.

*edit* you posted as I was responding :lol: Your avatar is a lord. Don't be obsessed with having the feeders out as long as there isn't tissue recession and the lords look happy. The puff/inflate you see on your avatar is about typical.

[whipit]

no sand blowing on them. they dont look like they are receding but they look pale? I will get the mag test. Thanks
http://i617.photobucket.com/albums/tt260/cindywhip/030-6.jpg
http://i617.photobucket.com/albums/tt260/cindywhip/032-5.jpg
http://i617.photobucket.com/albums/tt260/cindywhip/027-7.jpg

[footballdude2k3]

If they are not receding i would not be too worried since you have had them for a year...i do think you might have too much flow for them though, if corals have too much flow they get upset and do not extend the way they usually do...at least that has been my experience.

[whipit]

I think youre right! everything in my tank is doing xlent with the exception of these two.
maybe they just aren't very good Acans?

[footballdude2k3]

i dont think that is it at all i think that it is you do not have the ones that puff up as big, i have 4 kinds of lords in my tank, i have one that puffs up like crazy and 2 of them barely puff up at all. it is not that they are bad, it is that acan covers so many different kinds of corals that you cannot always expect the same behavior out of them.

[whipit]

well maybe someday I can get one that puffs up and looks like the pictures I've seen. to be honest I didn't know there were so many varieties of them so I just learned something new today:) Thanks guys

[footballdude2k3]

i you want to see everything that is the same family, go here:

http://www.arkive.org/related.html?q=Mussidae&requiredfields=Search_Family:Mussidae&client=arkive-info&site=arkive-info&related=relFamily&commonName=Acanthastrea+coral&latinName=Acanthastrea+lordhowensis&returnURL=%2facanthastrea-coral%2facanthastrea-lordhowensis%2findex.html