Shrinkage

[Jenemone]

Saturday, I traded some stuff to the LFS for credit and brought home some live rock, couple of fish, an open brain, and a red chili coral.

Since last night, the red chili has shrunk and completely flopped over. It looks really bad. My rose BTA also suddenly doesn't look good. I thought last night it was just expelling, but it is still totally shrunken up today.

I increased skimming and put some carbon in the filter. I also did a small water change.

I had to add egg crate to the top yesterday morning because the damsel chased the new watchman goby out the top of the tank (luckily husband saw it happen and put him back in). This increased the temp by about four degrees, but would this have caused my problem? Temp is now about 78.

The open brain looks much better than it did at the LFS. Trumpet is fully open. The other two BTAs look okay.

Any ideas? Could the chili just be adjusting to the new tank?

Jen

 

[Anonymous]

Is the Chili under a lot of light?

I'm sure you know that they expand in low/no light.

 

[Jenemone]

I have two 96 watt PCs, an actinic and a 10K. Tank is a 40 gal. I put it at the bottom in the sand in a slightly shaded spot.

This morning when I checked it, the lights had not come on yet. It was just under the night lights and it actually looked worse than last night when the lights were on.

 

[SnowManSnow]

Your temp is fine. My tank runs between 78 and 82 and everything is healthy and happy. It could take new corals a few days, even a week, to adjust to new lighting, flow, salinity, that sort of thing. Maybe it's just adjusting.

 

[Anonymous]

Was the new LR out of water for an extended period of time...could there be a mini cycle going on?

 

[Jenemone]

I think the rock was out of the water for about two hours, but it was wrapped in wet newspaper. He said they'd had it for over a month in their tank.

I increased surface agitation this evening, and it looks somewhat better. I had added more water than usual with the water change, and it was affecting the surface agitation. Maybe this will help.

Meanwhile, the rose BTA is MIA. Maybe it will show up soon, but it looked really bad this morning. I'm hoping that it is just unhappy and moving through the rock to find a new spot.

Here is a pic of the chili today vs. saturday.

I'll give it a few more days to get adjusted before worrying too much more.

 

[Jenemone]

I found the problem.

Gumbo the wonder cat - who turns door knobs, opens child proof cabinets, and turns on faucets - has discovered the flow control knob on the Emperor filter.

Apparently when I saw him sitting on top of the Emperor Sunday morning, he was playing with the knob and turned the flow down to nothing.

Here's a pic of him while I cleaned the tank last week.

A piece of duct tape over the knob whould cure the problem. I'm just glad it was something simple. Everything looks great now. The chili extended its polyps last night.

 

[Anonymous]

Good to hear!!

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Bad cat!!

Be sure to target feed the chili from time to time.

 

[HClH2OFish]

Target feed the cat to him..... :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Target feed the cat to a dog :wink: