Colt Coral Condition

[Ssaah]

Is it being blown over by current??

Your colt coral probably wants more light than 6 hours/day. Unless your acclimating, I would bump that up to at least 10 hours.

Colt corals (like most softies) can benefit from the addition of phytoplankton to the tank.

Other than that - keep the lights strong, the water clean and the parameters stable and the colt should be fine.

I have found that these are pretty tough corals. Just be nice to it and it'll bounce back.

Steve

 

[esmithiii]

I just had some liverock tumble on top of my colt coral and it was smashed for 5-6 hours. It lost a branch or two but is back, full as ever. Mine is under 2X65W PC lighting.

Ernie

 

[67Stang]

Do you think it matters that I placed the colt among my live rock?

Should it be placed directly on the DSB or is it OK among the rocks?
(I heard something that if the colt is touching something, it might get damaged)
What do you think?

 

[Mike02]

hey bruce, when you said last nite your colt was leaning over, did you mean after the lights were off?? if the lights are off, then leaning over or shrinking up is normal. i didnt know if you were a beginner or not, but that is normal for coral. and a 6 hr photoperiod mite not be enuff, but if the lights are off, corals with shrink up and lean over.

 

[67Stang]

Thanks Mike

I am fairly new at this and appreciate all your advice.

Yep, the lights were off and I've only been running them 6hrs a day.
I'll add some more time onto the lights and see how they do.

Thanks

 

[danmhippo]

Just on the side note, not sure if you already are doing this or not, place your colt in a medium to high current area (indirect current, of course). My colt loves it and appreciate the flow especially at phyto dosing time as they catches plantonic food that blows by from the power heads.

 

[Mike02]

Bruce, yeah you might want to increase your photoperiod to like 8 hrs but less than 10. I use 10 hrs on mine but i dont use halide. maybe someone else knows if light bulbs make a difference when deciding photoperiods. It takes like 2 hrs once the lights are on, for corals to fully expand. i think corals shrink up after the lights are off for protection. My button polyps withdraw into little balls after the lights go off. This protect them from nitetime preditors. If you decide to get briarium, you'll see all the polyps disappear after the lights go out

 

[67Stang]

Just curious,

I have one Colt Coral for a couple of days, about 12" tall.
It's in my 200gal, last water check was ok, and I'm running metal halides for 6hrs/day. tank has over 200lbs live rock and a 4" DSB.

Since last night, I noticed that the colt is not standing tall but all the branches are kind of falling over to one side. Kind of like a limp look.

It doesn't look sick. The trunk is still full and the branches polyps are out.

I'll check the water again when I get home from work but is this something I need to be concerned about or should I just wait a few more days before I panic?

Also, Is there anything special I need to add to the water for colt coral or feed it? Currently, I'm not adding any suppliments to the tank.

OK, Thanks again with all your help