Duncan Coral Issues

[Albertan22]

Hi all, so I'm having some trouble with a duncan frag. I've had the frag for about a week and it's been doing really well. When I first got it, I put it down on the sand for a couple days to acclimate it to the light, then brought it up to the ledge where I wanted it to stay (about 6 inches higher). The frag seemed happy enough, the polyps were extended fully most of the time, but it kept falling off its ledge. So 2 days ago I went on a frag glueing rampage and glued down several of the frags in my tank I'd been neglecting lately. I used aquarium safe epoxy and superglue gel to secure the frag (and the others), and the frag hasn't opened up since. Every once and awhile I notice the frag starting to open up, but then it just retracts itself again before opening fully.

Other info:

The tank is 120g and has been running since August. Livestock includes 2 occelaris clowns and 4 chromis, a skunk cleaner shrimp, a peppermint shrimp, and a mantis shrimp with more lives than a cat. Coral list is: zoas, a hammer coral (other side of the tank from the duncan), an acro frag and some GSP. I run phosban in a reactor and water parameters are good. Mg: 1240, Calcium: 400, Alkalinity: 8.

Thanks for looking

[whatcaneyedo]

Although I've never had any problems with coral reacting to underwater epoxy I've heard several stories of people who have. Maybe do a water change and run some fresh carbon and see if that helps. I've had my duncan colony close up for a day or so at a time in the past after being handled too much so also try leaving it alone for a while.

Arent you concerned that your mantis is going to kill and eat all of your fish and shrimp?

[Albertan22]

I spent the better part of 2 months trying to trap that mantis without any success. At one point, I actually saw him in a rock and managed to get it out. I proded that rock to no end trying to humanely get him out, when that failed, I eventually ended up running hot water through all the holes in the rock. Something flushed out of the rock in this process but went down the drain of my sink before I could confirm the ID. I then put the rock into my sump and left it there for 3 weeks, having heard no clicking from the tank or sump for all those weeks, I moved the rock back to the display (as it was the centerpiece of an arch). Two weeks after that, the clicking started again... Since then I've learned to live with the little guy. He's just a little guy, and I haven't noticed to much death and destruction. The hermit snail's shells are pretty beaten up, but not broken. I do notice hitchiker crab claws on the sand once in awhile though.

[ScubaSteve]

I was having some issues recently with my Duncans as well. They got knocked off their ledge and landed on one of my rics, which I didn't find until I got home from work. I didn't think a ric could hurt a Duncan... I thought wrong. Let's just say the Duncans were ****ed...

It might be the epoxy, though the carbon in your phosban would probably take care of any chemical issues. Them being unhappy is probably from being bounced around recently; plus you'd probably see other corals reacting to the epoxy as well if it were the case.

Give them a few days to recover. They are pretty hardy and can take fair amount of abuse so they really just need time. I found that moving mine to a lower flow area encouraged the polyps to extend more when they did poke out and they were less likely to retreat. If you can entice them out, feed them. Mine bounced beack really quick with a little spot feeding. Bare in mind that is has only been there a week, I found mine took a couple weeks until it was really happy.

[Zoaelite]

Albertan are you sure it isn't a pistol shrimp? Have you actually seen the little guy before? I keep my duncans right off of the sand on a piece of live rock and they tend to do really well (I target feed allot) but I know that Ric's have a really nasty sting so that and the epoxy has probably ****ed them off. Although you can epoxy them I find that because duncans have tissue coming up the stalk (As shown below):

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/2677/pantscott.png (http://img138.imageshack.us/i/pantscott.png/)

That using super glue on the base of the skeleton works the best, this way you don't have any necrosis that takes off due to smothered tissue. Hope he pulls through, keep the target feeding up.
Levi

[Albertan22]

Target feeding seems to have worked :biggrin: I gave each polyp a PE mysis shrimp last night and today they're open and looking pleased as can be! Thanks for the advice guys. In regards to the mantis, I did see the guy once (and only once), in a crevis in the rock beating a new burrow, pretty positive it's a mantis. That's assuming that the clicking is the same critter that was making the noise pre-tank tear down per my earlier story.