candy cane question

[scubacane]

I got a 3 button candy cane frag acouple of weeks back and put it fairly high up in my water column- 5 watts / gallon CFB with moderate flow in my 14 G biocube ( upgraded)- SG1.025, pH8.2, nitrates always around 5-10, Calcium 400. The edges have never really "fleshed out"- you basically see a hard pinkish surrounding area. The center still floureceses (sp) very green under actinics with pink edges but overall under full light it looks "emaciated".
I dont see much in the way of sweeper tenticles at night either- are we dead, dying? any thoughts. The only other thing is I have some sort of crustaceans on the same live rock, looks like a copepod but bigger- that come out at night- could they be eating at it? I have in the tank a finger coral frag, a frog spawn, a pink acropora , a torch and a brain frag that appear to be thriving, as well as some xenias that I growing like weeds that grew off my original live rock from nothing

 

[Bifferwine]

I have three different colonies of candy canes in my tank. One, that I've had for 2 1/2 years (20+ heads), I've never seen any tentacles on, and I've never had to feed it, and it's done well and grown. The other two (1 head and 20+ heads) put their tentacles out nightly and I target feed them. Just because a candy cane isn't putting tentacles out doesn't mean it's lacking something or starving.

 

[Reefgyrl]

holy moley 20 heads! Wow that's awesome, and I got excited when mine split into three!!!

 

[daugherty]

my candy cane has its sweepers out every night. it is now a 23 head coral i got it in jan and it only had 13 heads. i think yours is fine scubacane

 

[dustin_P74]

so how fast do candy canes usually grow a new head

 

[daugherty]

it all depends two of the heads split into three seperate ones at the same time.

 

[Bifferwine]

I've had my blue candy cane (with 1 head) since September or so, and it still has one head... My brown/green ones have added a new head every month or so, and my pink ones have added two new heads in the last month. So it depends.

 

[Reefgyrl]

awesome

 

[Zoakeeper]

This, when purchased 3 years ago, was 3 heads. I've fragged over 75 off. And its well over 200 now. It's under T-5's at the top of my tank. And I do not feed it.

 

[Altohombre]

Can I use that as a tennis ball?

 

[daugherty]

wow that thing is huge

 

[Zoakeeper]

Unfortunately making the picture smaller doesnt do the coral justice. You could not play tennis with this, basketball yes, as it is almost 10" in diameter. And the picture was shoot close-up. It's under the tank brace so cant grow up as it is also at the waters surface. So it's growing sideways and out on all sides. Starting to grow over some of my ORA green slimer and covering it. (it kills it) so they are not compatable. But the slimer is bigger than a softball so it wil have to decide to grow somewhere else. Slimmy basketball anyone?

 

[Reefgyrl]

Wow zoa, that cane is gorgeous!