Coral question!!

Hi is it normal for corals to close down often??

I added a frogspawn coral and it looks as though one half of it has completely died and i can see the skeleton. the rest of the coral is seperate to this part and at first was ok but now seems to close down and open up again every day?

my params are all ok, the coral has medium water flow and is down on the sand because i thought the T5's would be too strong for it?

Is there anything im doing wrong??

i understand it might be too late for this coral to survive (although i hope it does) but for future ref any advice would be great!!

 

Hi Colcol

Its normal for LPS corals like frogspawn, torch, hammer, bubble etc to close down, normally at night after lights out, they retract very tightly into their skeleton but are normally out again before breakfast

any coral with seperate heads . Its possible for 1 or more heads to die whilst remianing heads stay alive and healthy

there can be various reasons for this , such as

Handling - if one of the coral heads is touched when expanded this can cause the decline of the head contacted - so always handle by the base or stem and make sure you waft over top of them so they close before moving

store handling - if they try and bag coral up before its fully closed the head can be damaged and die off a few days later in your reef

placement - if when they expand they can make contact with sharp objects this can damage them

water - if your adding new salt water at water change time or new RO for top off, make sure you dont pour it directly onto this or any other coral, rapid changes of water can cause LPS heads to die off

so monitor your coral, but losing 1 head is not always the sign of the start of full coral loss and they can survive grow, develop new heads, despite having lost one or more previously

Steve

 

Thanks steve, im just learning about the keeping of corals.
Been reading quite a bit but some questions you just cant find answers for in books!!

Thanks again mate,
All the best colin.