ultra acan color?

mallorieGgator · Jul 24, 2011

Hey all,
I got an ultra acan a few months back and was told to keep it shaded. It's shaded and it's just kinda orange and red now. Before it had black, green, blue, purple, orange, and red. Now it's just bla. Do I need to move it to more light? How do you all get a great color on your acans? Thanks!

Troylee · Jul 24, 2011

I think that's called being kept in captivity IMHO... Tons of these nice new acans hitting the market morph and look blah after while...

I have one frag that has actually held it bright intense orange and rainbow out of about 10 and there all with in a inch of each other.. Uhhhh lol

brannock_16 · Jul 24, 2011

Do you know if the acan that you bought was in an established tank and tank raised or if it was wild caught by chance?

I don't want to sound like a bummer, but most of the times wholesalers will get in amazing ultra acans that they sell as such. The only downside of this is that since these acans are wild caught and not proven in an established tank, 9 times out of 10 they lose the majority of their colors that make them ultras. It is very difficult to find ultras from a wholesaler (or some retailers for that matter) that truly are ultras and will retain their coloring.

The most important thing to do is try to purchase established ultras. These have proven themselves to keep their coloring under man made lighting. Also, for you I would highly suggest to keep your acans in a shaded portion of the tank with medium to low flow. I would also suggest target feeding them a variety of frozen foods and Fauna Marin LPS food.

This is just my personal experiences and opinions, but I hope it helps.

brannock_16 · Jul 24, 2011

Haha...troylee beat me to the punch!

mallorieGgator · Jul 24, 2011

ahhh, doo doo! I'm sure they weren't established. Bleh. They are spoiled and get target fed about 3X a week and then catch other food when I feed the fish. I have them shaded under a large monti cap and they are growing but not coloring. They are in a low flow area next to my other acans. O well, guess I may try and move them to a little more light and if they don't color up, I'll just sell them. Thanks!

All Delight · Jul 25, 2011

+1 what troylee and brannock said.

I nearly always try to buy established ones. I pay a lot more, but there is less risk.

A lot of the orange rainbows turn red.

chessnutt · Jul 25, 2011

could be your lighting. I had to add two purple bulb to bring the color out. most of mine where brown and red when i bought it. took some time for the color to come back though.
IMG_5647 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

RaeRae · Jul 25, 2011

This is the reason I will NOT buy these again. I have spent some big money on acans for them to do this. And its not my lights. I run two pheonix 250 14k on a deep 92 bow front. And change them out every 10 months. I have them high, low, shadded, in the dark and still in the end blah blah color. I target feed raw shrimp and mises almost every weekend. Good luck man.

mallorieGgator · Jul 25, 2011

I have a 4 bulb aquaticlife fixture, good individual reflectors: 2 ATI Blue +, 1 KZ Fiji Purple, 1 KZ New Generation. Plus moonlights run 24/7. Do you all think it could be a response to them being fed a lot in captivity vs. not being fed a lot in the wild?

Acro76 · Jul 25, 2011

If a wild acan is going to lose its rainbow colors, it usually does it within the first 2-4 weeks of being in captivity. So always ask the seller how long they have had the piece. If they've had it for a long time and you end up losing color, it could be a problem with your system or light/flow parameters. I'd say about a quarter of the ultras we get lose some rainbow variation, or get less desirable in color. I've gotten pretty good at IDing these acans after seeing so many of them. On the flip side I can usually tell the specific morphs that will keep their color or even get better. Here are my acan color and growth tips:

Temps - 74-78, ideally around 76 - I've always had better success with LPS in my systems keeping the water a bit on the cool side.
Lighting - t5 or LED. I've yet to see a halide system keep rainbow colors very well on acans. But it could be that most folks with halides are geared toward keeping Acropora. So in addition to way too much light the acans are getting hammered by flow and higher temps. The halides are either too intense or just too lacking in blue spectrum. ATI bulbs work really well with the t5 fixtures.
Moderate to low flow encourages polyp extension. Random moderate flow via vortec pumps works awesome.
Feed 1-2x per week. Any meaty frozen foods, or Fauna Marin LPS pellets. Turn off all pumps for at least 30 minutes.
If you encounter poor PE or dramatic loss of color, or white streaks, bleaching etc. Use an interceptor dip. I've also had good luck with levamisole and coral RX dips.

mallorieGgator · Jul 25, 2011

Thanks! I'll turn my temps down a tad. I do have SPS so I don't want it getting too cool in the tank. I have great PE, just a bleh color. The vendor contacted me and he's going to give me a new one that he has had luck with. He also reported having some loss in the ultra-ness of the acan so it's not just me. Thanks everyone!