Aussie orange and gold hammer corals survival rate?

[robertshaw85]

hello all-

Ive failed at several attempts with all of the new rare australian corals that are coming in- most importantly the beautiful orange ridge hammers and even worse a gorgeaous golden one. They both lasted about a month, opened up huge at first and slowly declined. The tissure begins to recede after the first week or two and then slowly skeleton and stn. I had some aussie blastos that did the same thing. Keep in mind the tank has tons of other euphyllias, acans, and chalices of all species and other indo and australian ridge hammers in the green color. Seems that specifically the orange colors including the torches have similiar problems. Im curious if anyone has had success with these corals specifically and what kind of paramaters they like. Any ideas of what their natural envt is like? Any help is appreciated bc these are awesome!!!!!

Edit: oh ya- lots of feeding too. they love to eat mysis. towards the end they try to eat and consume food but spit it out after a few hours undigested. too weird. again have an aussie green one thats thriving though. bizarre. Does anyone have any that are surviving long term?

Edit:

 

[ripped tide]

Care to share more info about your system? Placement of corals? Lighting? Etc?

 

[brisco15]

My orange torch has been going for over 3 months and is slowly growing. I have it in medium low flow and lower level of my tank. My other "green or blue variety" seem to enjoy more flow and mid level placement. All are thriving orange just seems to grow slower. I run LEDs. I've heard this quite a bit that people are having problems with them. I can't keep a neon orange plate to save my life. All other plates thrive and reproduce I've tried 2 orange plates and both died... Who knows sometimes I believe they just take to much abuse in original shipping and receiving and just never recover fully.

 

[falos]

i have had a gold ausi hammer for a few years now it dusnot like led
grows verry slow
requires amino acid baths every month or so
likes higher alk 10.5-11 dkh
likes higher flow then most lps
will not frag i have lost 6 frags of it mother survives but frags die in a few days

 

[brisco15]

Amino acid baths very interesting. Which amino do you use? First time I've heard of a direct bath

 

[rskillz]

I don't find the orange/rare variety to be any harder to keep than any other Euphyllia, but they are usually of the wall variety. This means they are MUCH more susceptible to brown jelly disease and other bacterial infections because they are one entire piece, so if one part is damaged, the entire piece is damaged.

Where were they placed in your tank? Were they in the sandbed? If the flesh is exposed to sand, it can irritate Euphyllia badly.

Also, I'd slow down on spot feedings. I NEVER feed my euphyllia, and I rarely feed any coral of any kind. I find this to be an overated practice, as corals cant digest and regurgitate food as quickly as many of us like to spot feed. I find that over spot feeding actually stresses the coral out and deteriorates its health overall. They get most of what they need from light.

My advice would be to anchor them to the lower rockwork, away from the sandbed, in moderate flow, and leave them alone! No more spot feedings!

-Ryan

 

[snowmansnow]

are you kin to THE Robert Shaw?

b

 

[raz0945]

I have a Orange Ridge Hammer that I got from Spikes about 9+ months ago. Glen had fragged it several times. I have it in my 125g, the flow is medium-4 returns/2 at ea end on a SCWD, 2 mp40/1 on ea end, they are at 50-60% flow. I feed the tank 2 times a day-9 fish, 8 anemones, 100+corals. I do a weekly water change of 15-20% and manually dose ALK/CAL ea night and MAG every other week. The base of the coral is in a PVC pipe to keep it off the sand. The lighting is 8 T-5s and 3 MH. I have placed it close ( about 8" away) to the mp40 at the front of the tank, it likes the flow. It moves gently does not whip around. I do not spot feed directly but I feed the tank heavily. I do feed phyto 2x a week. Holley

 

[falos]

Brisco15;853481 wrote: Amino acid baths very interesting. Which amino do you use? First time I've heard of a direct bath

i use 1 gal tank water to 15ml brightwell amino alng with ground up myiss i leave the coral in for 15 min to a hour
i do this for eny lps or clam that may seam ill. low polop expansion, brow jellyvinfection,freshly fraged or after i dip new arivles
it works well for me the corals seam to love it and go in to feeding mode shortly after entering the bath
hard part is transfering them with out deflation or poping the polops

 

[robertshaw85]

thanks for all the feedback. im glad to hear that some of them are surviving. I do want to try again again till I get it right

In regards to the tank its a 4x4 frag setup with 50 gallon sump and also a 50 gallon display with fish. I keep the fish in the other tank strictly bc I have noticed the corals are healthier with fish in the system and I grew tired of fish moving around my frags in the 4x4. tank is healthy with low nitrates and kh 7-8 and calcium 440 (may be a little high for lps). I feed the corals pretty heavily with phyto, cyclo, and mysis bc its mainly lps and acans and trying to grow them quickly.

I do have leds and t5's. half and half. the first orange hammer was only under the t5's and lasted longer. the gold one was under the t5's at first and then i upgraded to a radion also and he didnt seem to like it as much so moved him back to the t5 section but it was too late. the green aussie likes the t5's and is still thriving.

Im wondering if the orange/gold pigment has something to do with it bc I have chalices that are great except for an orange fools gold chalice. I have had it for months and no growth and slight tissue recession. too weird with all the orange issues!

Also a question for all the successful orange hammer keepers- whats your water like? I know your doing water changes but is it still pretty dirty and any nitrates or clean?