ysanford Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 Our GSP closed up rapidly yesterday and it has been closed for about a day and a half. Now, there are a few tips that are turning brown and it has some slim around it. We've search on the internet and can't find a solid answer. Has anyone experienced this? We've had it for about a month and we have never had any problems with it until now. As for the Carnation Coral, it has a brown "mold" looking spot on the base that developed about three days ago. It hasn't gotten any bigger, but the coral itself has been retracted since we have noticed the spot. Again, we looked on the internet to try and find an answer, but now luck. We've also asked several people and no one seems to know anything about this coral. Is this a hard coral to keep? What the **** is going on!?!?!?!?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blindside Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 gsp can retract for daysssssssssss. in my experience, i cant kill it. ha. as for the carnation, is anything else near it? have any big snails or hermits? i cant see a moldy looking thing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Capt. Obvious Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 if/when you kill your gsp without actually trying I will be amazed. and I will dub you "he who has the shidas touch"...like kind midas....except when you touch stuff it doesn't turn to gold it turns to sh@! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 I agree with Blindside on the GSP, I have a TON of it in my FOWLR, and every now and then a rock or two will close up for a day or two.. One hint is GSP loves nitrates and pollution. Any change in lighting, replaced old bulbs with new, etc.? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ysanford Posted February 18, 2009 Author Share Posted February 18, 2009 (edited) I agree with Blindside on the GSP, I have a TON of it in my FOWLR, and every now and then a rock or two will close up for a day or two.. One hint is GSP loves nitrates and pollution. Any change in lighting, replaced old bulbs with new, etc.? No change in the lighting. We did a good size water change on Sunday. As for the Carnation, here is a pic with the spot circled. It isn't by any other corals, although we do have some turbo snails and blue legged hermits, but they haven't done any damage to our other corals. They climb over them, but they always open back up after a little while. Edited February 18, 2009 by thesanfords Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GKarshens Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 From what I have read and been told Carnation corals are almost impossible to keep. Sorry I don't have any info on the spot and not good news. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ysanford Posted February 18, 2009 Author Share Posted February 18, 2009 Well I just spent the last 2 hrs searching for an answer on the net. I ran into some articles that basically said, keeping one in captivity is futile. Now I am stuck with the question what to do with the thing. I don't want to keep it for my own desire. Nor do I want to pull it from the tank and melt it. And to leave it in the tank risk poisoning the other coral. And if I give it to a store they are probably going to sell it to some unknowing individual like myself, continuing the cycle of it's demise. Perhaps I shall be the hand of justice and give it a good life in a quarantined tank til it dies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Capt. Obvious Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 Well I just spent the last 2 hrs searching for an answer on the net. I ran into some articles that basically said, keeping one in captivity is futile. Now I am stuck with the question what to do with the thing. I don't want to keep it for my own desire. Nor do I want to pull it from the tank and melt it. And to leave it in the tank risk poisoning the other coral. And if I give it to a store they are probably going to sell it to some unknowing individual like myself, continuing the cycle of it's demise. Perhaps I shall be the hand of justice and give it a good life in a quarantined tank til it dies. I can see what it does in Bailey's tank...if I can get it back to health you can have it back....just frag me a piece later Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ysanford Posted February 18, 2009 Author Share Posted February 18, 2009 that might work. I encourage you to do some reading before hand though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Capt. Obvious Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 (edited) that might work. I encourage you to do some reading before hand though. pffft reading?!?!? reading?!?!? who does that?...I have read on carnation many a time...I am no expert but I am just offering the helping hand...good samaritan type BS...if it lives, great otherwise you were gonna kill it anyway Edited February 18, 2009 by Capt. Obvious Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cool Breeze Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 I just got a carnation coral too. We'll see if I can keep it alive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ysanford Posted February 18, 2009 Author Share Posted February 18, 2009 I just got a carnation coral too. We'll see if I can keep it alive. Good luck to you. perhaps with a joint effert of the three of us these things will live longer than a month. lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medi Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 Don't know much about the carnation coral, but I had a similar experience with some GSP that I had. I run 250W MH, and for some reason one day my GSP closed up and started to die, I actually lost half my colony before I decided to make a change. I moved the GSP from a bright spot in the tank to a shady spot and within two days it was thriving again, and now I can't seem to keep it from taking over. I never made a change in the lighting, and it had always been housed under MH so who knows, corals can be funny sometimes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ysanford Posted February 18, 2009 Author Share Posted February 18, 2009 Don't know much about the carnation coral, but I had a similar experience with some GSP that I had. I run 250W MH, and for some reason one day my GSP closed up and started to die, I actually lost half my colony before I decided to make a change. I moved the GSP from a bright spot in the tank to a shady spot and within two days it was thriving again, and now I can't seem to keep it from taking over. I never made a change in the lighting, and it had always been housed under MH so who knows, corals can be funny sometimes.I will try to change the position of the gsp and see what it does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cool Breeze Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 carnation is also non-photosynthetic and doesn't like a lot of light. It's this reason that causes it to need targeted feeding or nutrient rich water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ysanford Posted February 18, 2009 Author Share Posted February 18, 2009 carnation is also non-photosynthetic and doesn't like a lot of light. It's this reason that causes it to need targeted feeding or nutrient rich water. Yeah the problem isn't providing them the right food supply or lighting. It is the fact that they are very sensitive to polutants in the water. And the main source of polution in aquariums is exess nutriants. So the very thing that you need to keep them alive kills them in the long run. I have been tryign to think of a way to creat a closed loop system that would provide all of the nutriants that it needs as well as keeping the water clean. The design that I am thinking of you would only beable to have carnation corals in there. Do to the fact thzat it is the optimal condition for them and anything else probably wouldn't like it. I am new to this so I still have alot of research to do. You never know though everything in life started as an idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dapettit Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 I found this while surging the net: The Carnation Tree Coral or Dendronephthya Carnation is one of the most beautiful and peaceful corals, and is also known as the Cauliflower Soft Coral, or Strawberry Soft Coral. There are over 250 different identified Dendronephthya species. It is found in a variety of flamboyant colors with red or orange being the most common. It is normally shipped while attached to a small piece of live rock or coral rubble. It is extremely difficult to maintain in the reef aquarium, and should be housed in an established reef aquarium. It requires low lighting combined with medium to strong water movement. It is necessary to have a constant current with an abundance of algal plankton. For continued good health, it will also require the addition of strontium, iodine, and other trace elements to the water. It does not contain the symbiotic algae zooxanthellae. Therefore, its diet should include live, baby brine shrimp, micro-plankton, and other small foods designed for filter feeding invertebrates, in order to survive in the reef aquarium. These foods must be available almost constantly. I'm also wonderin if it could be brown jelly? Migh do search on that. . . Good Luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ysanford Posted February 26, 2009 Author Share Posted February 26, 2009 Well, after a lot of TLC and a little bit of iodine, our carnation seems to be much happier. It has been nice and open everyday for the last 5 or so days. It is still in our smaller tank, but we are going to move it soon so hopefully it will like our 55 just as much. Thank you to every one that gave advice and help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cool Breeze Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 cool what all did you do/ change? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dapettit Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 It' s always good when they come back! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ysanford Posted February 26, 2009 Author Share Posted February 26, 2009 cool what all did you do/ change? We added some iodine and changed it's position in the tank (less flow, less light). We also spot feed it coral feed from River City. We just moved it into the 55, so we will see how it does. It still has the dark spot on it, but it doesn't look as "bad" as it did before. How is yours doing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cool Breeze Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 mines doing good I spot feed it sometimes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derry Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 More reading for y'all. This is a fairly detailed write-up in Reefkeeing Magazine on a technique for keeping dendronephthya. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmanning Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 I'm wondering if this type of coral will survive in my seahorse tank. Great link Derry. Chuck Stottlemire has some beautiful specimens......what a challenge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ysanford Posted February 26, 2009 Author Share Posted February 26, 2009 Awsome link. I wish I would have found it prior to my trial and error. I think for right now, spot feeding should be good. I am worried about the other inhabitants of the tank with that type of regiment; it would be difficult to keep the parameters in check. In Chuck's experiment, he only had azooxanthellate corals so it was easy(or should I say easier) to maintain a stable system for that one type. When you have multiple types of coral all needing different parameters, I imagine it would be a bit more troublesome. I guess my question for the day is: how do you isolate certain systems to certain corals when they all inhabit the same reef? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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