Duncan coral suddenly closed up

AC1211 · Sep 25, 2019

My duncan coral has been open for well over 2 weeks now and has been doing well..it suddenly closed up with no changes made any ideas why?

AC1211 · Sep 25, 2019

The coral is shown in this video

AC1211 · Sep 25, 2019

All of the other corals look good it is just that the coral has suddenly closed up I heard that this happens occasionally and may occur before growth is this true?

lpsouth1978 · Sep 25, 2019

I'm sorry I can't really help you here. I have heard other people say that Duncans are "moody" But I have not experienced this. My duncan only closes at night when the lights go out. It started with just 2 heads almost 2 years ago and now has ~25. It doesn't close up for growth, instead new heads just start growing beside the old ones.

foxt · Sep 25, 2019

Duncans can be sensitive to changes in the water chemistry, and close up. Sometimes they close up when generating a new head. And, in my case, sometimes they just close up for a while and I never figure out why. Any signs of brown stuff on the duncan, or could anything be pestering it?

BayouReefer · Sep 25, 2019

I have one with 25 to 30 heads on it it stayed fully open for several months then one day it was closed up. It stayed almost all the way closed for a couple weeks. For the last week or so it has been looking much better

AC1211 · Sep 25, 2019

foxt said:
Duncans can be sensitive to changes in the water chemistry, and close up. Sometimes they close up when generating a new head. And, in my case, sometimes they just close up for a while and I never figure out why. Any signs of brown stuff on the duncan, or could anything be pestering it?

No brownstuff and certaintly nothing picking at it.

ReefingBliss · Oct 14, 2019

I have the same issue I can not keep Duncans alive.

AC1211 · Oct 15, 2019

ReefingBliss said:
I have the same issue I can not keep Duncans alive.

It keeps on closing up occasionally my nitrates keep on bottoming out at 0 and I dont have a big enough clean up crew and everything else test fine so I dont know...

lpsouth1978 · Oct 15, 2019

AC1211 said:
It keeps on closing up occasionally my nitrates keep on bottoming out at 0 and I dont have a big enough clean up crew and everything else test fine so I dont know...

I would think that 0 nitrates is contributing to your issues. Duncans do better in "dirtier" tanks. with 0 nitrates there simply are not enough nutrients for Duncans to survive. My nitrates stay around 20 and my everything is doing well and my duncans are growing like crazy.