Acantophyillia not eating

[TheMysticGriffin]

The threads name, I've got an acanto that is not eating, it gives me a feeding response opens its mouth wide but does not seem to eat anything and just closes up after a while, should I inject food into it's mouth gently? I feed him rotifers and mysis shrimp and he ate for much of the time I had him for but stopped eating two weeks ago, he opened his mouth to eat and zoox came out. Should I take a pipette and gently inject food into his mouth?

 

[gbroadbridge]

The threads name, I've got an acanto that is not eating, it gives me a feeding response opens its mouth wide but does not seem to eat anything and just closes up after a while, should I inject food into it's mouth gently? I feed him rotifers and mysis shrimp and he ate for much of the time I had him for but stopped eating two weeks ago, he opened his mouth to eat and zoox came out. Should I take a pipette and gently inject food into his mouth?

If it doesn't want food, it's not hungry.

Coral don't need to be fed, they get all they need from light and fish waste.

 

[TheMysticGriffin]

I know this but there are no fish in the aquarium, there are only inverts and there aren't many of them (if we are not counting amphipods, there are thousands of those), also I heard that people needed to feed their acanto for them to survive this is why I'm asking. I'm scared of it dying.

 

[gbroadbridge]

I know this but there are no fish in the aquarium, there are only inverts and there aren't many of them (if we are not counting amphipods, there are thousands of those), also I heard that people needed to feed their acanto for them to survive this is why I'm asking. I'm scared of it dying.

ok. can you post a photo of the coral and the tank.

Have you measured the light level?

 

[TheMysticGriffin]

Here's the pictures, I've currently got an algae problem going on. I didn't measure the light level, I don't have a par meter but he has been doing good, the last picture is him 1 week ago when he was at his best, he was doing much worse 3 days ago but I did a water change, going to do one more today.

 

[TheMysticGriffin]

He's also in that little container because my tank has too high flow for him, so he needs to be in there or else his flesh gets raised in the current and he gets bothered.

 

[tzabor10]

I have never heard about using a container like that. Where did you find out about it? Are you using invertebrates to get the algae?

 

[ronsonb]

Going from too much flow to basically none can’t be good either I would assume.

 

[TheMysticGriffin]

People do it for coral who are either sick/get food stolen from them or effected by high flow, the container has holes in it so that mild flow can enter it and leave it but the coral has been in that container for 3 weeks and is doing much better when it was outside of that container. Before this solution I tried to isolate it with rocks but it didn't work as flow kept lifting his flesh so I had to resort to this solution. The only thing that could be bothering him inside of there specifically is the abundance of amphipods since they also like that area but other than that I cannot keep him if he is out in the open as he just shrivels up.

I've got 5 conches, 2 trochus snails and 2 spiny star snails with a skunk cleaner shrimp. I think my tank has pretty high phosphates, went to the LFS to get kits but the kits they had were expired and gave false readings, could this be the culprit?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Don't try to feed the coral if its not hungry, it will reject the food and you will only foul the water. It gets is primary nutrients and energy from the light, any food is just a bonus.

But I wouldn't put it in that container, it might not get enough flow or light in there, might not get enough oxygen or nutrients. Build a rock wall around it will be better than to completely cover it with plastic.

 

[TheMysticGriffin]

Don't try to feed the coral if its not hungry, it will reject the food and you will only foul the water. It gets is primary nutrients and energy from the light, any food is just a bonus.

But I wouldn't put it in that container, it might not get enough flow or light in there, might not get enough oxygen or nutrients. Build a rock wall around it will be better than to completely cover it with plastic.

I tried to do it with rocks, it didn't work his flesh kept getting raised and in one point he just retracted his flesh completely and his mouth was gaping open, I thought he was going to die but upon placing that thing over him he recovered. My wavemaker is on the lowest setting this was the best solution I could come up with I'll try to open more holes into it to increase the rate of exchange.

 

[exnisstech]

I used containers like that in the past but only when feeding then I removed them. I would not squirt food directly into the corals mouth. I do not feed mine but I have fish.
Acanthophylia can handle flow just fine, at least mine do. As long as they are not being blasted from one direction. Mine also does fine in higher light. This is mine in my acro tank. Tank is 36x24x24 with two mp40s, two mp10s, and two Nero 5s for flow. I have a very chaotic flow pattern in this tank. Lighting is two reefbreeder photon 32 pro lights. The flesh lifting from flow is not a issue as long as the flow is random so the tissue lifts up then comes back down. I find it even helps prevent detritus from gathering under the coral.

FTS

 

[TheMysticGriffin]

I used containers like that in the past but only when feeding then I removed them. I would not squirt food directly into the corals mouth. I do not feed mine but I have fish.
Acanthophylia can handle flow just fine, at least mine do. As long as they are not being blasted from one direction. Mine also does fine in higher light. This is mine in my acro tank. Tank is 36x24x24 with two mp40s, two mp10s, and two Nero 5s for flow. I have a very chaotic flow pattern in this tank. Lighting is two reefbreeder photon 32 pro lights. The flesh lifting from flow is not a issue as long as the flow is random so the tissue lifts up then comes back down. I find it even helps prevent detritus from gathering under the coral.

FTS

I guess mine is just sassy, he refuses to open if his flesh is lifted a little from his skeleton too many times within a certain timeframe and stays that way for like 2 days until he reopens and his flesh is lifted once again :/

 

[TheMysticGriffin]

Update:

I've injected mysis into it's mouth when it gave a feeding response and it has not spewed it out. I'm thinking of cutting off the top of the cover and just leaving the sides so that way the coral won't get harassed by the flow while being unaffected by the plastic blocking light from it, although it does spew some zoox out before lights out. Could this be caused by too much light? The lights are on for about 16 hours per day should I reduce this?

 

[Tired]

You're not meant to leave the feeding cover on constantly. You put it on while the coral is actively being fed whatever you're feeding it, then take it off. If the spot it's in has too much flow, it should be in another spot, not under a bottle.

 

[TheMysticGriffin]

You're not meant to leave the feeding cover on constantly. You put it on while the coral is actively being fed whatever you're feeding it, then take it off. If the spot it's in has too much flow, it should be in another spot, not under a bottle.

No other spot in the tank that has as low flow as this guy likes :/

I'll cut the top off the feeding bottle so that it just surrounds the coral a little so he can at least expand.

 

[ab-774819]

No other spot in the tank that has as low flow as this guy likes :/

I'll cut the top off the feeding bottle so that it just surrounds the coral a little so he can at least expand.

I've had a lot of trouble with an acanthophyllia also. I also resorted to covering it, however, I used a mushroom box (it's actually cylindrical) and has very large holes throughout. I couldn't figure out if it was high light or high flow or a combination of both but it was going downhill, fast. I moved it to a spot with very little flow and covered it. Mouth was gaping open, skeleton poking through the flesh. I thought for sure it was going to die. After I covered it, it seemed to recover day by day... then I started to wonder I'd my Fox face had been picking at it. I know you said there's no fish in your tank, but just my thought process for this acantho. Since it had started to improve quite well, I moved it back to where it was previously but left it covered still. I just uncovered it a couple days ago. It seems to be holding steady in good condition, so far, but it still doesn't open completely yet. It also still retracts fully at night and I panic every time lol

Added pictures of it covered, and now.

How's yours doing? Has it improved or gotten worse?