good deal?

[strapingyunglad]

My LFS has recently tempted me with a great sounding offer but before i jump all over it i wanted a second or third opinion. Heres the offer, my lfs has a large colony of candycane coral for sale, but more than half of the heads are dead. Zero flesh, just skeleton. That leaves about 20 or so healthy heads. He says hel cut me a deal, the hole colony for 20 bucks. My question is if i buy this colony and cut away the dead heads will the other heads be ok? or will the good heads slowly wither away? My lighting is dual 65wt pc. All params are good and there wouldnt be any other corals to sting it. The reason im causiose << (spelled horrably wrong) is ive never tryd to keep stony corals and just reasently i got my first soft coral. Would this coral be ok in my noob hands? Thanks for reading this super long post and thanks for any responses!

(also if you could tell me how to spell causiose that would rock)

 

[drnecropolis]

If the whole colony doesnt look good I would aviod it..

 

[strapingyunglad]

the whole colony might go down hill?

thanks for the spelling correction ace.

 

[gwhiz]

Do you know why it's in the shape its in?

 

[linda lee]

#1 - is there any kind of warranty? Ask the LFS. If you're a student on a budget, tell them that even a $20 investment is a big deal to you.

#2 - ask the LFS if <u>they</u> will remove the deadheads and, if the coral looks fine after a period of time (2 weeks or so) tell them you'll buy it. You might even put down a deposit during the observation period.

NOTE: $20 for 20 heads is a terrific deal -- if they stay healthy.

 

[strapingyunglad]

no. but half the colony is totaly gone.

 

[strapingyunglad]

good thinkin linda. I am defenetly on a budget. and im not to comfortable with fraging my first stony coral.

 

[glxtrix]

it must have been some serious neglect. To kill LPS is kinda hard, esp if it's a candycane. One good thing about those is you have total control of health on them. If your lights a good...MH, or T5 you're more than half at winning the battle on health. Next thing to do is feed it everynight when your lights are off. You'll see it'll open up and have tentacles sticking out...feed it mysis or brine. Basically, if the remaining heads looks shriveled and close to the skeleton, I wouldn't buy it. If they look puffy, and larger than the skeleton, get it, it's a great deal.

 

[linda lee]

I had candycanes under PC's before I got my Outer Orbit MH fixture and they did fine. I had plenty of watts per gallon though and the canes were placed pretty high in the display.

 

[strapingyunglad]

Cool. Looks like ill buy somthing else, Thanks for all your help.

 

[george]

I wouldn't skip it so quickly.

Are the remaining heads healthy and showing no signs of necrosis? Are the dead ones scattered through the colony or only on one side?

Having kept candy canes for years, random head die-off is not particularly rare. They are not connected by any living tissue so there is no direct connection between the health of one head vs. the rest of the colony.

There are lots of different ways it could happen: algae overgrowth, blockage by neighboring corals, random necrosis, random infection, falling into a sand bed or other spot that completely blocked/shaded those heads. Now if the dead heads are scattered all through the colony, that may indicate a disease or parasite related death.

As far as trimming goes, if you do buy it, I'd say your best move is to break up the colony into bunches of 4 or 5 heads each and let them grow in your tank. They are capable of growing out from one head (they multiply by fission), but one head frags can be annoying to place and keep in place. You may be pleasantly surprised with a crapload of candy cane colonies/frags to share.

As far as lighting goes, I have kept perfectly happy candy canes under 4x96w PC in a 75g tank, under 96w quad PC in a 15g tank, under 250w MH in a 25g tank, a solaris LED in a 40 breeder, solaris in a 25g, and in a 15g refugium with those 20watt PC 6500K GE bulbs from Wal Mart. They don't require tons of light to do reasonably well, but tolerate all different levels. What size tank is your 2x 65w fixture over?

 

[derek_s]

I agree with George. I have made purchases liek that before with no problems saving the remaining heads. Many LPS corals rebound quickly. I Did the exact thing with a bubble coral from Marine Fish and it is thriving.

 

[strapingyunglad]

my tank is a 29gl bowfront. The spot i have picked out is kinda at the bottom. The coral is currently in a shade free area of the dealers tank with no sand and no rock to fall on to or off of, the dead heads are spread randomly through out the coral and that leades me to beleive its diseas wich my tank is currently free from (hopefully) but im no expert so should i go for it or no?

 

[bobz]

Go with your gut and pass on it if you are not sure. Every time I try and convince myself I am getting a good deal, it usually ends up bad in the long run. IMHO
Bob

 

[bobz]

If you want some Candy Cane, I have some very healthy frags from a piece that just accidently fragged itself in my tank. I have 8 or 10 frags with between 3 and 8 heads on each frag. You can have them for $1 a head. LMK.
Bob

 

[skriz]

I'd buy it for $20 if I were you. More than likely, the good heads will probably be just fine. $20 isn't too bad of a price either.

 

[strapingyunglad]

20 is a good deal but bobz deal is better.

 

[george]

The safest is to check back with the LFS this week-end and if the coral hasn't lost any more heads, it's probably good to go.

 

[strapingyunglad]

im in the procces of purchasing some candycanes from bob but if any one is interested the candy i was talkin about is at Saltwater City. !!GET ON IT!!

 

[george]

ares;225491 wrote: Im not aware of any situations where the death could "spread" or anything, so the most you can lose is 20$.

There's no shortage of bacterial and "mystery cause" infections that could come from a coral and migrate to the rest of an aquarium, if that were the cause.

Passing is definitely the safe route, unless there's a quarantine tank involved. Then, I agree, it's only $20 for a potentially nice payoff.