Acan not opening

[Dan7575]

Hi all,

my Acan has stopped opening but all the parts still look ok and there as some little tiny parts on the sides. The skeleton has coralline algae on it could this be irritating it so it doesn’t open?

 

[Shirak]

The polyps are majorly shrinking in size and receding. The coralline has simply grown on the skeleton as it is exposed.

Going to need a lot more info on your tank if there is a hope to turn this around. Parameters? How long have you had it? Light level?

 

[Tired]

That is a very shrunken acan. Do you have any pictures of when you first got it? That skeleton must have been showing for awhile, for coraline to be growing on it.

All that lumpy stuff between the polyps is skeleton. That should never be visible. The entire thing should be occupied by polyps, the fleshy bits, with no skeleton visible even when it's fully scrunched up from something annoying it.

Do you feed it? If so, how much? If not, start feeding it, immediately. LPS need feeding.

 

[Uncle99]

Looks very hungry or too much light, or both.
Check both nitrate and phosphate are in the appropriate ranges. If so, reduce intensity.

 

[Dan7575]

Parameters are

alk 8
Cal 420
Mag 1350
No3 15
Pho’s 0.03 (have brought this down from 0.17 over 2 weeks)
Sal 1.026
Ph 8.2
Temp 25

I have recently turned up the lights for longer trying to keep sps frags but the Acan has been like this for months. I feed reef roids, AB+ Twice a week.

I looked after lights out last night with a red light and there was a bristle worm about 4cm long on it, could that ba an issue?

 

[Shirak]

Parameters are

alk 8
Cal 420
Mag 1350
No3 15
Pho’s 0.03 (have brought this down from 0.17 over 2 weeks)
Sal 1.026
Ph 8.2
Temp 25

I have recently turned up the lights for longer trying to keep sps frags but the Acan has been like this for months. I feed reef roids, AB+ Twice a week.

I looked after lights out last night with a red light and there was a bristle worm about 4cm long on it, could that ba an issue?

Bristle worm no

Your water parameters seem fine. Not sure how you are feeding the reef roids but that could be contributing greatly to your PO4. My LPS prefer chopped frozen food and LPS pellets. Nutrients in the water don't seem to cut it for me. Acans like low light, moderate flow and eating chunky bits a few times a week.

 

[Dan7575]

It used to puff up massively when target feeding reef roids. I have lately tried giving it vitalis pls pellets but it doesn’t take them in fact it doesn’t really look like it takes anything now when I target feed it. At lights out it does recede completely and then comes out like the photo. I have tried it in a shady place and out of the flow but no change. I currently have a shade over the tank in that area so it doesn’t get full light

 

[Shirak]

Very hard to get them to eat when they are in this state. Try some frozen mysis. Chop up the cube while still frozen. Then add some tank water and make a slurry. Add the liquid to the tank an hour or so after lights out and then wait 30 min and see if you can coax them to put out feeder tentacles. If you can get them to respond try feeding them a couple tiny bits to each polyp. Since they are all disconnected from one another they need to be fed individually. Some of the larger ones might come around. If you can get them eating, feed them every other day at least.

 

[Dan7575]

Very hard to get them to eat when they are in this state. Try some frozen mysis. Chop up the cube while still frozen. Then add some tank water and make a slurry. Add the liquid to the tank an hour or so after lights out and then wait 30 min and see if you can coax them to put out feeder tentacles. If you can get them to respond try feeding them a couple tiny bits to each polyp. Since they are all disconnected from one another they need to be fed individually. Some of the larger ones might come around. If you can get them eating, feed them every other day at least.

Thanks, sounds like a good idea, I’ll start tonight

 

[Waynerock]

Bristle worms only eat dead or dying things. Unfortunately it’s gonna be tough to bring em back they look about gone

 

[Tired]

Acans can come back from the tiniest spots of flesh, if you can correct whatever harmed them in time. The issue with corals is, they lag- they're slow to react to things, and can continue reacting to harmful circumstances after the circumstances change. If you can fix the problem and it stops declining before it gets worse, this is a fixable state. If not, it's probably done for, but keep the skeleton even if it appears completely dead.

It might not be super fond of the phosphate level. That's not what's killing it, if you actually have 0.03ppm, but that's about the minimum phosphate you want to have. Acans like a decent bit of nutrients. 0.17 is a bit high but fine for plenty of things, no need to put much effort into lowering it.

I see feeder tentacles on some of the polyps. Shut off your pumps entirely when you feed, and put food directly on top of the polyps. See if they take it.

Do you have cleaner shrimp? They won't take a coral to that level of ill health, but can damage corals, especially LPS, by shoving their claws in the mouth to steal food.

Bristleworms eat dead and dying corals, or sometimes just hang out on healthy corals. They are, at worst, an extremely minor annoyance to healthy corals.