Duncan all closed up

[Barry_Cuda]

I have a Duncan frag that I've had for about a month - it was looking healthy & happy up until a couple days ago, but for the past two days it's been closed up tight. All my other corals (hammer, frogspawn, GSP, zoas) look good and are fully extended. I can't see any signs of injury or infection that I can recognize - it's just suddenly retracted. Any thoughts on what I might do to resolve this?

Parameters:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 0
Phosphate: 0
pH: 8.15
Alk: 6.8
Ca: 450
Salinity: 1.027

Alk is a little lower than I'd like, but I'm trying to get a good baseline on my consumption before I start dosing, so I haven't fiddled with it yet. Are Duncans more sensitive to low alk than other LPS?

 

[Idoc]

I had one that did the same thing, and then died. My parameters were like yours as well...no nitrates and no phosphates. I now have another one that has gotten really big since i started dosing nitrates and phosphates into the system. My alkalinity tonight was 7.4

 

[Barry_Cuda]

Well, that's a little disheartening. I hope the same thing isn't happening here. I've been feeding a lot more to try and bring nitrates and phosphates up to something detectable, but so far haven't succeeded. Maybe it's time to consider dosing them directly.

 

[uhgster1]

Feed it. I’be always kept duncans and whenever they close up its either a serious parameter swing or hunger. I have a colony of about 30 heads that I started from one this time and it works every time. Sometimes too well.

 

[Barry_Cuda]

Feed it. I’be always kept duncans and whenever they close up its either a serious parameter swing or hunger. I have a colony of about 30 heads that I started from one this time and it works every time. Sometimes too well.

Parameters have been stable, with the exception of alk slowly dropping while I baseline my consumption. I just tried some direct feeding, although I'm not sure how much food it can take in while all closed up. We'll see if this helps.

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

Duncans love food and appreciate spot feeding. I’d also shoot to get NO3 and PO4 up a bit. I learned the hard way that too clean is no good as well. I try and keep between 5-10 on NO3. Here are the fruits of my labor. Got this as 2 heads about 2.5 years ago or so and it has been through hell and back, but always bounced back.

 

[peppe_67]

I agree, feed it[emoji4] we had the same problem with ours, now since we started feeding it with Aquaforest pure food it's opening every day and has started to grow[emoji847]

 

[Barry_Cuda]

Thanks for the advice, guys. Direct feeding is really helping. I fed it yesterday, although I was skeptical about how well it could take food in when so closed up, but within an hour it was starting to extend a little bit. This morning it was about 3/4 extended again, and now this evening, after another feeding, it's almost back to normal.