Torch coral retracting. Help.

[Jeroen]

Hi, I have 2 torch corals in my aquarium. One white and one brown with green tips. The brown with green tips is doing great but the with one is slowly retracting and at the moment its 'feelers' are very thin and small.

Mark got also both torch corals at the same time and his white one is also slowly retracting.

Do they need specific food or what else might please it?

Thanks,

Jeroen.

[cracker]

How long in the tank?

[rossco]

I had trouble getting torches to get going in our tank. Their lights kept going out! Ours like moderate flow not too strong - so their tentacles wave in the breeze, not flap furiously. They like light but not too much. If you have a MH put them on the edge of the main MH light area.

I squirt (with a big eye dropper) mine some of the frozen fish food mix a couple of time a week - the mysid shrimp bits disappear real quick. Bigger hammers will even eat half whitebait.

You usually see a fairly rapid response (within an hour or two) of adding some of the coral supplements.

Don't know why I get nitrate rises... :oops:

I am sure not everyone will agree with this but it works for me!

[wasp]

What Rossco said.

Also, white one? I don't think there is such a thing among healthy torch corals, these torches may have been on the way out when you got them. However, nothing to lose, try - medium/lowish light, very little flow, light feeding as per Rossco, and if you can get it, dose Reef Solution into the water.

[chimera]

all my torch corals are MASSIVE at the moment. start of last week they were just average size. only difference is i did 2 x 200 litre (20%) water changes one day after the other with NSW. when last did you do a WC? perhaps you should try the same and see if it makes a difference?

[cookie extreme]

check your water parameters for phospate and nitrate. i have been looking after somebodys torches ( 3 colonies) for a few weeks now. his water was not the best. my own torches a very big but his ones still struggle, i guess it take quite a while for them to get better. 2 of them still show no growth yet (and honestly i don't give them much hope), the other is going ok and expands more while mine keep growing (they are all in the same tank). so it would seem that lots of damage was done to them before they ended up in my place, in this case bad water.

[wasp]

How's it going Jeroen?

[Jeroen]

Thanks for all the advice,

Tank is still very young (2 months) but has lots of life rock. Water parameters are very good. I can't detect amonia, nitrite or phosfate and nitrate is around 10 ppm. Calcium is around 400 ppm and SG is 1.024 and pH is rund 8.3. I use NSW and have so far not seen any changes in the parameters. I do about a 15% water change every 7 to 14 days.

It looks like I might have had too much flow around them. I have re-directed my powerhead and they are calmer now. Haven't change the lighting yet and will see how it goes. It has not got any worse and maybe a bit better. Need more time to see. Will post some pictures tomorrow.

Jeroen.