Corallimorph - drastic color change? (help)
John Ray
Hello,
I have 2 creatures identified as corallimorphs living peacefully in
my tank. I had no idea what they were (I inherited them before they
got sent to the trash from a neighbor who was moving), and I didn't feed
them. One shrivelled up and looked very ill for the longest time. I
fed it every other day, and now its puffy again. The other one never
really seemed to care about not getting fed, and has acted fine.
However, over a period of 1-2 days, I noticed that the one which had
always acted fine has gotten *lighter?* Significantly lighter. I
fed it, and it curled up and ate the food, no problem. It acts fine,
but I'm concerned about this color shift.
Also, the one which was ill has developed some "spots" in its little
stubby tentacles, it just looks slightly darker brown in areas than
it did before. It acts fine as well.
This is a 55 gallon tank w/ 5 36" FL bulbs, 2 50/50s. 1 actinic, 2 trichromatics
and 2 15" bulbs mounted on the sides. Nitrates are 0 or REALLY close,
as are phosphates and ammonia. Calcium is ~420mg/L, pH 8.3.
The only thing I've done recently is added a red-slime killer about 1.5
weeks ago. It killed one small patch of red slime (I apparently misdiagnosed
the nasty stuff growing on my macroalgae, as it wasn't affected)...
I did a 15% water change after that... I'm really hoping that this
wasn't a terrible mistake... It was algae-chem by Boyd enterprises?
I've been told that the corallimorph don't need bright light or strong
currents - so I'm wondering what (if anything) is wrong.
(And if the algae-chem has destroyed my tank for life :( )
Thanks for reading,
Email appreciated,
John
Kristi Bittner
John Ray (jr...@bigmac.ag.ohio-state.edu) wrote:
: Hello,
I'm not sure, but I suspect that your corallimorphs will be fine. Your
lighting should indeed be sufficient (I had MH, and they did NOT like
it - happier shaded a little!)
The color change could simply be an indication that your tank
conditions are *different* than where they came from (both light level
and water quality) - even if yours is better - they adapted to the
other conditions. And will probably adapt to yours (Your parameters
are good, and the things currently act and look happy - I'd be
surprised if you had problems, in the long run).
On color change, I know that if the amount of blue light changes, it
can affect color (I've seen more of the blue/green phosporescent
colors, with more blue light)... but for the brown color underneath, I
heard a speaker speculate (and I think it was Delbeek), that in tanks
with high nitrates, it better feeds whatever turns them brown, so with
really high nitrates, some of these polyps will get really dark, even
chocolaty brown. So if that holds, lighter brown colors may actually
be just fine.
: Thanks for reading,
: Email appreciated,
oh, ok, I'll try to do email, too.
: John
--
Kristi Bittner
kri...@sc.hp.com
or occasionally: kbit...@netgate.net