Strange LTA behaviour

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GuOD

Aquarium Advice Freak
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Nov 6, 2006
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I recently picked up an LTA and I am not sure what color it is or if something is wrong with it.

It appears to be a mix of green/pink. I placed it on a rock and it stuck in and moved the next day down into a cave... the half of its body exposed to light is pink, and the part blocked from light looks green and healthier. Anyway, I had to move some rocks and he was moved a bit, but he seems to be fine where he is now.

However, the strange part is that during the day it will be sort of small and shriveled at some points, but at night all the tentacles extend and it waves in the motion of the water.

Stranger part (I think) - My skunk cleaner shrimp walked over it without getting stung at all... and just now my rabbitfish rubbed up against it and swam through the tentacles. I know it's alive because it responds to food and moves...

Is it sick or is this all normal?

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Hmm, if they LTA isn't attached yet try moving it to the sandbed. That is where they should be placed at. However...with your lighting, it might not like it there and move around...

Does it expand when the light comes on only? Is that what you mean by night?
 
The bottom of the rock you see in the picture is my sandbed, so he's quite close. he actually moved to this spot himself.

This is what he looks like now:

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That first pic was from later in the day yesterday... and at night it's the largest... it's almost as if the thing DISLIKES light



My toadstool is also looking strange again. Is it normla for it to look like this so soon when it just started coming out?

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Lastly, my roommate and I both got this coral, some type of leather. and both of them seem to growing away from the light. it's about 12" down from the top of my tank. Does it need to be lowered?

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It could possibly light acclimation. He is not used to your lights and is trying to find a comfortable place. You only have a little over 2WPG, this might be a problem.
How did you acclimate him?
 
I brought him home and had all the lights off. I then floated the bag for about 20 minutes, and then slowly mixed some water into his bag for about 2 hours. Then I let him out onto a rock that was higher up and sort of held him in place with other rocks. (I read elsewhere it was ok to tie them down with fishnet etc). Lights didn't come on until the next day. I also covered my powerheads incase he decided to float around.

Then, he moved down onto this rock. I just noticed that his base is really far down into the rock (I know they usually like 4" DSB or rubble/rock so maybe it's ok) but maybe he fell in and can't get out? You can see his base really low down near the bottom tip of the shrimp.

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Looks like he has rooted in for the long run, lol. He didn't fall down there, he went there himself.

Give it some time to acclimate. It doesn't look bad right now, but it could still be getting used to things. Namely, if you didn't acclimate it to the light. (which hardly anybody does, but it can still affect them).

As for the leathers...they don't look good. They can sometimes deflate like that occasionally and then come back, but if you see it drop completely and start to turn brown, shrivel up, etc. I'd pull them both out.
 
Devilishturtles said:
Looks like he has rooted in for the long run, lol. He didn't fall down there, he went there himself.

Give it some time to acclimate. It doesn't look bad right now, but it could still be getting used to things. Namely, if you didn't acclimate it to the light. (which hardly anybody does, but it can still affect them).

As for the leathers...they don't look good. They can sometimes deflate like that occasionally and then come back, but if you see it drop completely and start to turn brown, shrivel up, etc. I'd pull them both out.

Yep, he really seems like he enjoys that spot! He's actually fully open now and doing great... he just seems to close up when the lights come on and stuff. It's probably just adjusting.

I moved my toadstool leather into a lower flow zone, higher up (my new light was supposed to be here by now) and the tentacles all came out and it's doing well again.

I moved my Starburst Polyp higher up too, just in case it wasn't getting enough light.

As for that blue/purple leather, I assumed it was getting too much light and moved it down a bit. I'm not quite sure what it is but it seems to be doing fine where it is. I'll add a pic shortly of my whole tank and show where all the corals are (of course, they will all need to be moved down when the new light arrives probably)

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I know my toadstool leather has very high flow on him and he loves it. As far as the anenome they like to have the foot shaded. That`s why you`ll see them put their foot in a hole or under a ledge. Here is a pic of mine with high flow on him.
 

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melosu58 said:
I know my toadstool leather has very high flow on him and he loves it. As far as the anenome they like to have the foot shaded. That`s why you`ll see them put their foot in a hole or under a ledge. Here is a pic of mine with high flow on him.

I did it under your advice and he was doing great for a few days... then he started to shrivel. I don't know that it was the flow though - I think he needed more light since my MH didn't arrive yet.

I had him about 10" away from 820gph pump, about 2" off the center aim
 
You have to realize also that leathers will do what we call sloughing in which they will look bad for a day or two but then be OK for a couple weeks and then go through the process again.
 
I remember you saying that as well, but this one had only been out for about a week before he started going back in. As soon as I moved him to a lower flow (not no flow) area with a bit more lighting, he started sticking stuff out again.

I was just wondering - I've heard these things get gigantic... but yours is still small after so long. Do you continue cutting it or is it relatively new?
 
Mine is about 4 months old but he has grown from about 2 1/2 inches to 6 inches long. Here is the picture progression.
 

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That is a fine looking toadstool!! I got mine it was about the size of a half dollar it's now about the size of a grapefruit. I've had it for about 2 months now. I also have a LTA and mine didn't want anythig to do with the rock work. He burrowed down into the sandbed and seems to be happy as a can be. Mine is about 10" across.
 
Is this the same tank that you have ich in and the salinity is 1.0019?
 
roka64 said:
Is this the same tank that you have ich in and the salinity is 1.0019?

The PBT is in a 45gal QT tank with just glass+water and some food. Salintiy is 1.019 and I guess ich is in there.

The main tank is perfectly fine - no other fish have been affected and all other stats are normal.

The QT tank is right infrotn of the main tank blocking it :(
 
Ok, I wanted to make sure your main's salinity was not 1.0019.
 
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