crab in eye of chalice

[iceman86]

I've had this chalice for about 3 months and its slowly been bleaching away to the point where half of it is white. I've tried everythibg with this coral from moving up on the tank cuz where it came from it had strong lighting and then to a shaded area and nothing changed. Last night I decided to creep up on the tank 2 hours later after lights out. I found a small crab inside the eye of the chalice. All I could really see is his claws sticking out and moving around. Could this be the reason its bleaching? And how do I get rid of the crab?

I also just installed new led lighting and the other day I came home and my mushroom coral was dead and one of my Monti caps was getting white spots on top. Could this all come from the same problem or is my light too strong. I already turned it down.

Thanks

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by iceman86

I've had this chalice for about 3 months and its slowly been bleaching away to the point where half of it is white. I've tried everythibg with this coral from moving up on the tank cuz where it came from it had strong lighting and then to a shaded area and nothing changed. Last night I decided to creep up on the tank 2 hours later after lights out. I found a small crab inside the eye of the chalice. All I could really see is his claws sticking out and moving around. Could this be the reason its bleaching? And how do I get rid of the crab?

I also just installed new led lighting and the other day I came home and my mushroom coral was dead and one of my Monti caps was getting white spots on top. Could this all come from the same problem or is my light too strong. I already turned it down.

Thanks

chalices are tolerant of strong lighting but prefer lower light, they will change color if the lights are too bright or too dull.

if its bleaching it could be the crab but id look more into the leds and look at my water quality and temp i have crabs hang on my chalices all the time and they do fine.

should be noted that chalices dont take to light changes very well especially to leds

[Spyd]

Chalices are extremely finnicky. They require acclimating to your lighting. When you purchase one, you need to acclimate them with low light, then slowly get them used to your ideal lighting. Put them in a shady area at first. The crab is probably just feeding off of it if it is dying away... Do you feed your chalices? Target feeding once a week or more is usually needed as well.

The other corals are probably getting blasted with too much light right now as well. They need to be acclimated to a change in light. If you went from a low par light to a high par light fixture, it will be too much for them. If it is dimmable, dial it down a lot to start, then slowly increase it over a month or 2 until you are satisfied with the amount of light. If it is not dimmable, then I would consider using something like eggcrate over the tank to cut down on the light intensity.

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by Spyd

Chalices are extremely finnicky. They require acclimating to your lighting. When you purchase one, you need to acclimate them with low light, then slowly get them used to your ideal lighting. Put them in a shady area at first. The crab is probably just feeding off of it if it is dying away... Do you feed your chalices? Target feeding once a week or more is usually needed as well.

The other corals are probably getting blasted with too much light right now as well. They need to be acclimated to a change in light. If you went from a low par light to a high par light fixture, it will be too much for them. If it is dimmable, dial it down a lot to start, then slowly increase it over a month or 2 until you are satisfied with the amount of light. If it is not dimmable, then I would consider using something like eggcrate over the tank to cut down on the light intensity.

chalices adapt to strong lighting (i have over 20 chalice species) pretty good its the change in par that gets them, chalices i have do very well in a 12" tank and 2 x 250w halides , i recently got a bleached chalice that was under a radion and 2 weeks later it was almost full color again under my halides.

target feeding chalices isnt really necessary but like most corals will def benefit from feedings(just about all corals benefit from feeding)

chalices are very touchy with temps as in high temps will wipe them out and bleach them in no time(they like colder waters)

[Spyd]

I agree chalices adapt well to strong light. Just saying they normally need to acclimate over time if they were in a low light situation to a much stronger par value.

[iceman86]

The aquarium the chalice came from was lit by LEDs. It was an sps tank so it had a lot of light. Then when I brought it home I also had LEDs just not as strong. Wouldn't it brown it out instead of bleaching cuz its not getting as much light? My new led system was just installed 2 weeks ago and the bleaching started the same week I bought the chalice.

[Proteus]

I had issues with LEDs and it did include browning out Sps. I'm still waiting for color to come back. I have some pieces that bleached and some that browned. I started with Mh and then switched to led. The issue isn't with how bright but the amount of usable light. Mh usually have about 70% useable light while t5 and led can be 100% usable.

Being said how are water perameters. Even nutrient that u don't test for can affect the coral. High iron will bring out greens for example

[Cal_stir]

If the crab is in the eye of the chalice I would try a coral dip, it might drive the crab out. I have a chalice that was receading and had white lines forming on it, I dipped it in CoralRX and it recovered and started growing again, I feed my chalices meaty foods twice a week @ an hour after lights out.

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by Cal_stir

If the crab is in the eye of the chalice I would try a coral dip, it might drive the crab out. I have a chalice that was receading and had white lines forming on it, I dipped it in CoralRX and it recovered and started growing again, I feed my chalices meaty foods twice a week @ an hour after lights out.

absolutely , coral rx will help regenerate the tissue loss plus get rid of your little crab

[Proteus]

Good to know