Bubble Coral Shrinking

[Lawrence]

Dear All,

I notice my Bubble coral has been shrinking for the past two weeks oredi, I have check my tank water condition & every thing is ok lei even the calcium level is ok.

Can I ask what is the cause of the shrinking, does anyone has this experience?

Pls advise!

[19percula]

u mean the bubble coral close is it?

[Lawrence]

No, normally it is like a full blown small ballon-like but for the past two weeks it is like a lose air bubbles like that & all the the hard coral skeleton can be seen lei!!

[RockyBoy]

U feed them enough meaty food?

[alanseah]

if your ph, kh, cal, no2, no3 all ok.. then

is it under strong current..

sometime it's due to stress while sometime they r like that then after a week or 2 it will be back to normal..

during this period best is feed it with shrimp so that it wont leak of food..

[JustinK]

My bubble also like that for quite long, until i decided to target feed it with Brine Shrimps, now its recovering... are there any fishes disturbing your bubble? my maroon clown used to disturb it, but not anymore cos that fella found a new host in my hairy mushies... Grr! But try feeding it? may help... my 2 cts worth...

[nicky30092002]

paiseh, mind i ask how u guys target feed since the brine shrimp is so small & current so strong leh? pls advise ..

last time anemone still can feed MP ... really wonder how to target feed torch, bubble ...

[ah^siao]

can feed MP also... cut into small pieces.. put near the tentacles there.. they'll stick to it then can le lol... the piece of MP will be slowly brought to the mouth there..

[JustinK]

The way i feed, use a syringe, take in some brine shrimps and then put directly at the mouth of the Bubble, leave it there for a while and it will sense the food and open its mouth, then slowly release the brine shrimps. It will take it in from there.... even if float away, ur fishes will gladly eat it too...

[Lawrence]

Hmm... i think i never feed the brine shrimp directly using a syringe lah!!!

Thanks for the advise, will try to feed it!!

[RAV-65]

Hmmm... i got a question too, my bubble coral was blooming very well until I fed it with market prawn meat, now for 2 days, it doesn't really bloom.... could it be i over-fed the fella? the prawn meat I fed was a little chunky....

Anyone got any idea?

Vincent Ho

[Michael Young]

No, normally it is like a full blown small ballon-like but for the past two weeks it is like a lose air bubbles like that & all the the hard coral skeleton can be seen lei!!

Lawrence,

is it just a few polyps behaving this way or the whole colony? What about the colour of the shrivering polyps, do they look normal to you? If all the important parameters (pH, kH, Ca) of your water has checked out; then you need to check for PO3 and lighting.

Phosphate will prevent calcifications and prevent your coral from laying down its skeleton. Even a minute trace of PO3 will affect the well being of your hard corals and most PO3 test kits available to us are not able to test for such small amount of phosphate. I'd suggest you use something like ContraPhos, RowaPhos or a Polyfilter to help you with getting rid of your PO3. Of course, not over feeding will also help.

I'm assuming that your lighting is sufficient to keep bubbles. If that's the case, you need to see if they are shaded by other corals.

Bubble corals need fairly strong lighting, regular feeding, good water parameters and moderate to low current to thrive. Good luck.

[FuEl]

Feeding does'nt really play an important role. I've kept a bubble for about 1.5 years without really target feeding.

[RAV-65]

haiz... i tot with target feeding, the fella will grow bigger, now it seems it's suffering from indigestion...

Vincent Ho