Why won't my Candy Cane Coral open?

[Nanobros]

My candy cane coral won't open for some reason.. I first put him in the sand bed. He didn't open a bit. Then next I put him up closer to the light. Didn't open but then closed up more because of too much light. So then I moved him closer to the sand bed but not on the sand bed. Why won't he open?? I have a 14 gallon Biocube with 1 clown fish and 1 hammer coral, 4 crabs, 2 snails.

Temp: 79
Salinity: 1.023
Calcium: 380 (I know it's a bit low)
Carbonate Hardness: 11 dkh
Nitrate: 3.0
Nitrite: 0
Phosphate: 0

[crocogator106]

I've had one for about 3 weeks and it hasn't opened yet either. It will puff up at night a little but has never opened.

[Nanobros]

Originally Posted by crocogator106

I've had one for about 3 weeks and it hasn't opened yet either. It will puff up at night a little but has never opened.

Yeah it puffs up during the day sometimes too but that's about it.

[crocogator106]

Mine looks much worse than yours. I was in Petco one day and saw it and got it (that was probably as mistake). I should know better than buy corals from Petco

[Nanobros]

Originally Posted by crocogator106

Mine looks much worse than yours. I was in Petco one day and saw it and got it (that was probably as mistake). I should know better than buy corals from Petco

Yeah I bought mine from petco too but my petco actually takes care of their things but I guess this coral I'm not sure what's wrong.

[crocogator106]

I don't think mine has a clue how take care of corals. I told the guy working in the fish department that their corals look awful. He just said yea, they didn't have the right lighting.-l0l

[Nanobros]

Originally Posted by crocogator106

I don't think mine has a clue how take care of corals. I told the guy working in the fish department that their corals look awful. He just said yea, they didn't have the right lighting.-l0l

Yeah my petco has a whole coral tank. Do u know why mine isn't opening up?

[crocogator106]

I'd lower the temp to 77-78 and bump salinity up to 1.025 and see what that does. Your other parameters look good.

[Nanobros]

Originally Posted by crocogator106

I'd lower the temp to 77-78 and bump salinity up to 1.025 and see what that does. Your other parameters look good.

Alright thanks

[blueclam99]

I don't have too much luck with candy canes nor trumpet, either. I even tried to target-feed them.

[shua71]

From experience they don't do well in high flow or high lighting. Yours doesn't look too bad.. Put it low in the tank with low flow and leave it be

[rt67ghy]

I have the same problem with my candy cane. When there's food in the water it swells up but it has never put out tentacles to capture food even after lights out so I just decided to leave it alone and see what happens.

[Sk8r]

Check your nitrate: keep it around 1. Many tanks, unexamined, run in the 50's.

[Acan ninja]

my experience with corals is you don't feed them on the regular they will stop opening there tentacles you can try to drop something meaty on top of its lopes every other night around the same time and see if it will eventually respond but sometimes they wont respond with tentacle feedings ever again they do puff up though and extract the nutrients from the food that is free floating in the water maybe get a smaller sizer coral food like reef chili i've have had a colony of trumpets for almost 6 years the have been through every thing and are still thriving i've framed them several times now for they have grow more then i desire to have i keep my perimeters as followed dkh 10 / calcium 450/ magnesium 1400 dose trace elements every 2 weeks and dose iodine when it gets low havent done a water change in 6 years only biological filtration skimmer and carbon/gfo reactor needless to say in the begging i didn't have these things a old tube sock was my only form of filtration to start lots of research and trial hope this helps good luck

[C.Eymann]

What you have there is Caulastrea curvata, it looks to be fairly normal for daytime extension, only thing I see wrong is the black splotch on the smaller head. Details ? upclose pics?

Otherwise, they generally only "open up" at night time, and when I say open up, I am referring to them extending their feeder tentacles, They like moderate to lighter flow, Spot feeding will increase growth rate big time, doing so is best done at night, or in the day time you can add the thawed "juices" or water you have thawed food in to initiate a feeding response (extending feeder tentacles) during the day about 10-20min prior to attempting to spot feed.

Fairly easy LPS coral, and again,the only thing I see possibly concerning is the darker blotch on the smaller heads tissue. Other than that it looks fairly happy, could be a bit more "puffy" but that could be a flow or lighting response.

I wouldn't worry too much about it.

[illinijoe]

Doesn't look too bad how is it doing now?

[Esper]

Originally Posted by Nanobros

Carbonate Hardness: 11 dkh

This is a little high. Get it down to 8 or 9. What salt mix do you use? Instant Ocean?

Candy canes can take more flow than people think. Mine grew into large globes with more flow. They don't seem to respond well to a lot of light, though.

[Reef Bass]

+1 for letting your alk drift down a bit. I like to run mine at 8. Also, check your magnesium. Low mag can make hard corals grumpy.