Favia not excepting food...

[NeptuneRjo]

I received a single-coralite frag of dragon soul favia in the beginning of may. All was going well, it had a very minimal amount of receding from shipping, nothing to cause any concern.

For the first few weeks the coral was accepting food during the day, even without tentacle extension. Both frozen brine and frozen krill, however, it just stopped eating.

I've tried brine, krill, pellets, hikari coralific delite, and reef roids. I've also attempted both during the day without tentacle extension and at night, both with flow and without with no success.

During the first month I was using red sea reef energy and am now currently using aquavitro fuel (both before feeding and during)

 

[ludnix]

Is it just letting go of the food when you feed it at night? I would check your parameters too if you haven't already to see if there is a chemistry issue that might be the cause.

 

[NeptuneRjo]

Is it just letting go of the food when you feed it at night? I would check your parameters too if you haven't already to see if there is a chemistry issue that might be the cause.

Yeah it would grab the food but after a minute or two it would pull its tentacles back and release it. I'm going to try a few new methods to see if I can try to get a better feeding response.

Nutrients are a little high in the tank, but I dont know the exact numbers at this very moment. Will be testing tonight so I'll post numbers.

I also think the krill isnt the best quality, it's a little freezer burned from the bag busting open so I'll try more brine.

 

[jcolliii]

Try something smaller and heavier. Do you have any pellet fish food? Soak some to get it soft and put it right onto the polyps. Even when mine don't have tentacles extended, they gulp the pellets right down.

 

[NeptuneRjo]

Try something smaller and heavier. Do you have any pellet fish food? Soak some to get it soft and put it right onto the polyps. Even when mine don't have tentacles extended, they gulp the pellets right down.

I have some .5mm pellets I can try again. Now that I think of it I might not have soaked them long enough last time.

 

[LittleFidel]

I’m also having similar trouble. My favia has four heads and used to extend feeding tentacles every night. Now, it rarely extends them at all and I cannot seem to get a feeding response out of it whatsoever. What parameters do I need to be looking for?

 

[NeptuneRjo]

I’m also having similar trouble. My favia has four heads and used to extend feeding tentacles every night. Now, it rarely extends them at all and I cannot seem to get a feeding response out of it whatsoever. What parameters do I need to be looking for?

Has anything changed in the environment (flow, lighting, parameters)?

 

[LittleFidel]

Has anything changed in the environment (flow, lighting, parameters)?

No real changes. I would classify flow and light as both medium - the frag is on the sand bed alongside Xenia, button polyp colony, and macro algae that are all growing well. As far as parameters go, I am able to measure for the following:
Ph: 8.2
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm
Phosphate: 0ppm
Kh: 13
All advice is welcome. Thanks.

 

[NeptuneRjo]

No real changes. I would classify flow and light as both medium - the frag is on the sand bed alongside Xenia, button polyp colony, and macro algae that are all growing well. As far as parameters go, I am able to measure for the following:
Ph: 8.2
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm
Phosphate: 0ppm
Kh: 13
All advice is welcome. Thanks.

What kind of foods have you tried? Also might want to consider bringing nitrate and phosphate up slightly. Zeroes for both usually is not the best for coral (im sure its the macroalgae just consuming nutrients faster then you add). Starting a thread in reef tank chemistry will definetly help you better with that than I can lol

 

[LittleFidel]

What kind of foods have you tried? Also might want to consider bringing nitrate and phosphate up slightly. Zeroes for both usually is not the best for coral (im sure its the macroalgae just consuming nutrients faster then you add). Starting a thread in reef tank chemistry will definetly help you better with that than I can lol

It used to accept flake and pellet readily.
Interestingly enough, it was showing its feeding tentacles after lights out tonight. Two things changed:
1) I did a 5 gal (~20%) water change just before lights out. I find that I’m much more likely to see tentacles when I do a water change, which leads me to believe that you’re correct about water chemistry being a primary factor.
2) I added a quart of AlgaeBarn copepods today, many of which were extremely small and could have elicited a feeding response from the favia.
I will start a thread in water chemistry to see what else I can learn. I am relatively new to corals; I am from the Freshwater planted world in which my strategy was to use fast-growing plants to export nutrients. I was attempting the same strategy for the reef but this may not be the best approach. Thanks for your help.

 

[NeptuneRjo]

It used to accept flake and pellet readily.
Interestingly enough, it was showing its feeding tentacles after lights out tonight. Two things changed:
1) I did a 5 gal (~20%) water change just before lights out. I find that I’m much more likely to see tentacles when I do a water change, which leads me to believe that you’re correct about water chemistry being a primary factor.
2) I added a quart of AlgaeBarn copepods today, many of which were extremely small and could have elicited a feeding response from the favia.
I will start a thread in water chemistry to see what else I can learn. I am relatively new to corals; I am from the Freshwater planted world in which my strategy was to use fast-growing plants to export nutrients. I was attempting the same strategy for the reef but this may not be the best approach. Thanks for your help.

You have the right approach for nutrient export, people typically use the same method through refugiums. Usually you want to leave some nutrients for the coral, especially softies and lps. Not to worry though as this can simply be done by feeding slightly more or trimming some of the macros down.

 

[MohrReefs]

How often are you feeding? Thats weird cause favias are ravenous.