Ricordia shrinking

[reefermike]

After my last routine water changed, which was also when i took out my Live Rock to scrub of the hair algae. I noticed that 3 of my Ricordias have stayed shriveled up, while 2 of my others have been perfectly fine. They were not exposed to air at all. The only thing i really did was break the rock that they were on in half so that i could split them up as well as i changed their position on the rock. I tried to feed them but they wouldnt take food. They still have their colour. Im not sure what to do and i really do not want them dying on me. Are they jsut irritated?

When shrimp walk on coral does it irritate them?

 

[drty811]

i have shrimp in my tank and it doesnt seem to both my rics. im sure they just have to acclimate back to normal.

 

[reefermike]

Well good news at least. 2 of the ones that shrunk a bit and werent eating took some mysis shrimp today. Only 1 now that hasnt taken the shrimp. Im sure they ll be fine now

 

[drty811]

glad to hear they have recovered. you said they took mysis, its cool that they are eating but you know you dont have to feed them.

 

[reefermike]

Their not looking to good. Current tank parameters

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Phosphate - 0
Calcium - 380 ppm
Ph - 8.2
Alkalinity - 3.25 mEq/L
Carbonate hardness - 380 ppm
salinity - 1.026

 

[drty811]

it might be due to the salinity, i had the same problem. my rics dont like the high salinity, so i lowered it and they look great. but on the other hand it might of been the extra water changes to lower it. not sure what it was but it helped.

 

[reefman23]

What kind of light/flow are they in in your tank? What other corals are in their general proximity?

Jesse

 

[reefermike]

Stock lighting nano cube 48 watts. No other corals around.

 

[reefermike]

Before

After

Before

After

 

[drty811]

thats what mine looked like before i lowered my salinity/ coupe extra water changes.

 

[reefermike]

lower it how far? 1.024?

 

[rescuediver19]

Interesting pics

 

[reefermike]

OK well the temperature is set to where it was before. And i also moved them up a bit ( more lighting) last thing im going to do is lower my salinity. If nothing works then i dont know what to say. Im confused beyond belief right now.

 

[drty811]

i am in the range of 1.020 - 1.022, usually closer to 1.020. i keep it low so it doesnt get to high due to evap.

 

[reefermike]

fair enough. Would the coral splitting be cause for it to shrink like this?

 

[reefermike]

Heres a couple updated pics.

sorry about the crap quality

 

[reefermike]

By the way i lowered my SG to 1.023 and still no change. Any other idea?

 

[mikeguerrero]

Reefermike,

From your first couple of pics I can say this is quite normal. My florida ric has been doing that ever since I have owned it. She normally does it in the night when she is feeding. It retracts completely and closes up feeding her center.

Then after she feeds she is back to normal fully open and even more so during daylight hours.

The last couple of pics shows them splitting. Mine did the same thing about 6 months into having her home.

One day she just started to melt just like your pics show, I had three heads at that time and one just melted away and the other two split away from the rock and formed their own group.

Today it's a very healty pair on a totally different rock.

MG