Something makes my acans die

[Kirschy17]

hey guys,

My reefs been up for about 3 months now.
Even tough im still fairly new to reefkeeping i have had plenty of moments allready feeling succesfull at it.

I have only softies and lps atm but plan on having a full mixed reef.

For species theres a zoa colony, a little leather, a gsp, a tiny mushroom and for lps theres a frogspawn, a alvopora and my acans.

So to the acans. The one i currently hve are allready the 2nd ones, my first died pretty quickly. The ones i currentlt have lost about half their tissue in the first 12 hours of being in my tank. After 3-4 days only 25% of the corals tissue is left.

Parameters are

Nitrite/nitrate/ammonia
0/0/0 (i know low nitrates might be problematic but my other corals are thriving)

Also very low phosphate

Temp is 78, sal at 1.025, ph is 8.1,

I dripacclimated for about an hour each time, i put the coral upside down in the tank. Placed them low on the substrate to avoid a burn from lighting.

I feed them regularly( which wouldnt even matter since the coral mostly died before possibly needing food.)

Another thing i checked is i the store used led lighting, so do i.

One thing that struck my mind is that my peppermint shrim seemed to be really curious about the coral. I read they can get nasty when picking food off corals or even taking it out of their mouths.

Might this be the reason for their quick dieoff? With that in mind i placed my lone surviving head higher in my tank where the shrimp dont get that often.

After all ive read with my other corals doing really great i have no clue what kills off my acans that quickly.

For stocking in the tank:

2 percula clowns+rbta

1 yellowtail pygmy angel

1 starry blenny

3 peppermint shrimp

2 emerald crabs

1 pistol shrimp

Snails(cerith,turbo,conch,nassarius,trochus)

1 tuxedo urchin


Tl;dr

Acans die off while rest of the tank is thriving. No obvious killer besides peppermint shrimp maybe???

Help please!

 

[Krzydmnd]

Pics might help. What do you mean when you say you put them upside down in the tank? When entering the water?

Did they seem plump and healthy at the LFS when you bought them?

Were they both the same type?
I have three different varieties of acan colonies in my tank. Two of them are doing fabulous and one has struggled since I got it.

 

[Water Dog]

I wouldn’t bother drip acclimating any coral... just match temp and salinity in in they go. Also why put them upside down? Perhaps buy putting them upside down, you damaged them by rubbing their soft tissue against their sharp skeleton leading to tissue recession and death.

 

[Jimbo662]

Acans do like the water a little dirtier. My last test was phos - .14 and nitrate - .05-.10

 

[Kirschy17]

Okay so first of all thanks for the quick response. Both were pretty similar specias as far as i can tell tough one was light red and this one being purple/dark green.

Both looked very healthy. Also they are from my most visited fish store so i know they have been there for a while and also have been healthy all the time.

The “placing upside down thing”

When i got the frogspawn and the red acan(my first lps) i placed them in the tank very carefully not bothering about up and down. When the acan died and i got to the fishstore again and talked withem about my loss i got told to allways turn lps corals upside down when taking moving them from the bag to the tank. So thats what i did with the purple/green one.

Even if this does/does not matter i was extremely carefull with both corals. I hardly doubt i damaged them so hard. They got in the tank without any visible damage.

 

[Water Dog]

Oh okay... to me it sounded like they were placed on the substrate or rockwork upside down initially.

 

[Kirschy17]

Acans do like the water a little dirtier. My last test was phos - .14 and nitrate - .05-.10

I do know the low nutients might make for no perfect acan environment. I am in the process of raising by skimming only 5h a day atm and heavy feeding(both fish and coral)

My other corals have extended polyps. I cant believe they starved to death only from missing nitrates.

Also it was only 12h inwhich half of the tissue was gone.

 

[moulton1853]

No expert by any means but looks like your frogspawn may be too close and the sweeper tenticals could be causing the damage....idk

 

[Kirschy17]

Viable point, the thing is i placed the acan in the sandbed initially. Thats where it lost the tissue. Because i saw that the second time allready i had no clue what to do about it. Only the shrimp seemed to be a possible offender. Thats why i moved it up to make sure the shrimp would stay away. I needed a place where nothing can knock them down because thats what happened when i first moved them up. Its been 3 days up next to the frogspawn and i pay close attention to possible sweepers. Pretty certain theres no problems there.

 

[Water Dog]

Could definitely be the 3 peppermint shrimp. Are they fed well?

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/peppermint-shrimp-eating-acan.182251/

 

[moulton1853]

With the shrimp I have had they only go after the corals if they have food on them or something is wrong with it to begin with. Have you been dipping the corals in anything before placing them in the tank?

 

[Jimbo662]

I'd say if you want to keep acans definitely get rid of the peppermints. I've had a blood shrimp in my tank for about a year and a half and it's never gone near a coral. He's very shy and only comes out to grab some food that's either floating or on the sand.

 

[Kirschy17]

With the shrimp having been my prime suspect i have read all these things aswell. I definitely didnt feed the corals in the first 24h. Since i have the nitrate issue i am feeding pretty heavily as far as i can tell. I feed 1/3 cube (brine with spirulina/garlic) twice a day for 4 juvenile fish. Also i feed special shrimp pellets about once a week additionally.

For dipping. I did not dip the coral simply because i am kinda scared of it. I have no special dip and i wasafraid to cause the corals even more trouble with the dip. Also as i said the acans came from a special acan tsnk at my lfs. I have seen them there healthy for at least 2 months. Also i have not seen a single unhealthy one in said system.

 

[Jimbo662]

What kind of fish? 1/3 cube twice a day seems like not enough to keep the "tank" fed. Remember, all organisms (bacteria / snails) in the tank need to be fed. I'd try at least 1/2 a cube twice a day at least.

 

[Kirschy17]

2 juvenile perculas, 1 juvenile pygmy angel and a juvenile starry blenny.

The blenny gets additional spirulina pellets aswell but he doesnt like tjem yet haha.

 

[Kirschy17]

I'd say if you want to keep acans definitely get rid of the peppermints. I've had a blood shrimp in my tank for about a year and a half and it's never gone near a coral. He's very shy and only comes out to grab some food that's either floating or on the sand.

Dude i would have said the same about my peppermints. No aggresion, no nipping on corals ever. Only the acans. Since i moved the acan away they dont bother it anymore.

 

[moulton1853]

The pygmy angel could cause a problem if hungry. They are reef safe with caution. Any angel will nip at corals if hungry and once there is damage to the coral the peppermint shrimp will finish the job

 

[BigJim]

It could also be the angel. They are known to pick at acans. Do they slowly shrink and die or there pieces missing from them. If they slowly shrink, I would think you need to feed them more. If there are pieces missing, I would suspect the peppermint shrimp an / or angel.

 

[Kirschy17]

I know that. I have him for over a month. Never seen him touch a coral. Not a bit. I mean i coulve misded that obviously but since i lost the first acan i paid super close attention the 2nd time. If something oneyed it mustve been the shrim.

 

[Kirschy17]

It could also be the angel. They are known to pick at acans. Do they slowly shrink and die or there pieces missing from them. If they slowly shrink, I would think you need to feed them more. If there are pieces missing, I would suspect the peppermint shrimp an / or angel.

If id explain it id say neighter. It went extremely fast. As i said 3-4 heads lost 90% of their tissue in the first night. It disnt look ripped apart. It looked like it simply died off.