candy coral question.

[steamboatwv]

I just bought this candy coral about 4 days ago, the guy at the LFS let me have it for half the price of the other frags of it cause it has a bad polyp, only has 3 total, was hoping i could do it some good in my tank i think it was a bit close to some other things there that were attacking it, my question is do they usually heal up fairly fast if all is good in the tank, I put it by itself for the most part the closest thing to it is a mushroom and a button polyp colony but even the BP are 6 inches away. and if they do heal pretty fast what is the normal growth rate for them to add new heads ie: 2months, 3months, 6months???? all 3 polyps on it blow up everyday and put out feeder tents every night so hoping all is good....and of course you can see the damaged polyp in the second pic but it blows up everday and feeds also so just wondering about there recovery or if they even will before losing the polyp

[ckusnierek]

It looks fine to me I dont see any damage. You should be a bit more concerned by what look to be aiptsatia under that "damaged" head. As far as growth, They are kinda slow. First you will see the head slpit. It will look like a "8" with a mouth in each section. Growth will depend on the tank specs. If you want it to grow faster keep the CA above 400 and feed each head 1-2x/week.

[steamboatwv]

well the aptasia isnt a problem, little joes juice and poof, lol, there is only a few of them left in the tank after the jj treatment and the addition of 8 peppermint shrimp. but anyhow, you dont see the skeleton of the polyp sticking way out of the side of it? it wouldnt open for him at the LFS he said that something was aggrivating it, he had it touching some other corals in his tank so i guess it shrank away from the skeleton to get away from whatever it was, everything in my tank grows quite well, i just have never dealt with candy corals and didnt know if that polyp was going to keep shrinking away to nothing or if it may grow back over it.

[discocarp]

IMO It will be fine. These are some tough corals, and yours looks to be in great shape even with the skele showing.

Worst case, if you start to lose the polyp with the skele showing, just remove that polyp. The other 2 should do fine.

[Twitterbait]

looks good to me, it will grow back.

[steamboatwv]

very cool, thanks for the info, i did try feeding it a little while ago and all 3 polyps fed easily so i'm happy.

[seasalt dreams]

yep they are tough indeed. I even crushed one of mine while aquascaping a while back and it just continued to grow around that rock, looks funny, but stil growing fine

[discocarp]

That's nothing. My candy cane (or miracle cane as I like to call it) was found in a tank I was cleaning out after it had been turned off for a year. The tank had been wiped out by hurricane Charley (3 week power outage). At the time I was very, very sick (nerve damage, year and a half in bed, year of physical therapy). I was too sick to do anything with the tank so I just unplugged it. One year, only ambient room light, no top off, no circulation. I didn't know anything had survived after the power outage. After I got better, I cleaned the tank. I found the candy cane! It was sickly, but alive! Now its doing great! Its in my brother's tank at the moment!

That's what I call a tough coral.

[steamboatwv]

Well like you all said the candy coral has fully grown back over its skeleton now and doing great everyday, here is the new pic. i'm amazed at how fast it healed up. been feeding it mysis twice a week.

[discocarp]

Great to hear! Before you know it, it will be a monster.

[Jrmass]

As large as the middle polyp is I wouldn't be surprised at all to see it split. Mine split typically every other month (just about ALL of the polyps) I know that that is not typical by any means. But, I bought mine the 1st of July at 6 heads and I've now fragged it into 2 separate pieces one of the pieces is 8 heads and the other is 6. So, 8 extra heads in 3 months. That's a lot of expansion. Luckily trumpets/candy canes are easy to frag as well =)

Jason

[rerun151]

Forgive me if this is a dumb question but what and how are you feeding it? I was given a tank with some candy cane's in it but am new to the hobby and just kinda stumbling my way thru it.

[Debs]

I have 3 sets of candy canes and I never target feed them. They get plenty from the water column and have split for me also. About a year ago I accidentally stabbed one with a set of tweezers and it healed itself in no time. They are one of my favorite corals in the actinic lights.