Be careful making a bunch of changes trying to fix this.
They can handle bright light and moderate flow just fine. But they need acclimation to the brighter lights. I kept mine at the top of my rock scape.
They are notoriously difficult to keep and they have a reputation of doing well for months and months only to suddenly retract and wither away and die.
I will say this:
I have a green and an ORA red. They both did fine in bright light and moderate flow. They did fine for months on end. I fed amino acids and reef roids on the regular.
Then I adjusted lights to preview some settings one day and that or something else ticked off the ORA red.
I kept the the ORA red where he was. It slowly began to bleach as it was clearly stressed and now starving due to not extending its polyps. However, though the base was whitish the polyps crowns even retracted still maintained some amount of red coloration. So I let it be. It never accumulated algae. The shrimp never bothered it (a sign a coral is dying or diseased).
And so it stayed that way for about three months.
I checked chemistry, but nothing stood out as problematic and certainly nothing that changed suddenly. Other than the lighting testing I did. Who knows?
Then finally the polyps miraculously started to pop out. What little color was concentrating on the polyps was more washed out once the polyps extended. And they continued to extend. After about two month they started to get their color back and today ORA red finally looks red. The polyps have yet to fully extend beyond a centimeter or so, but they clearly are happier and the coral is on the mend.
Choose a strategy, and give it time before shifting gears. If they close up immediately upon touch, o suppose it isn’t a surprise they would get annoyed by anything else that is actually stressful for it.
Good luck!
They can handle bright light and moderate flow just fine. But they need acclimation to the brighter lights. I kept mine at the top of my rock scape.
They are notoriously difficult to keep and they have a reputation of doing well for months and months only to suddenly retract and wither away and die.
I will say this:
I have a green and an ORA red. They both did fine in bright light and moderate flow. They did fine for months on end. I fed amino acids and reef roids on the regular.
Then I adjusted lights to preview some settings one day and that or something else ticked off the ORA red.
I kept the the ORA red where he was. It slowly began to bleach as it was clearly stressed and now starving due to not extending its polyps. However, though the base was whitish the polyps crowns even retracted still maintained some amount of red coloration. So I let it be. It never accumulated algae. The shrimp never bothered it (a sign a coral is dying or diseased).
And so it stayed that way for about three months.
I checked chemistry, but nothing stood out as problematic and certainly nothing that changed suddenly. Other than the lighting testing I did. Who knows?
Then finally the polyps miraculously started to pop out. What little color was concentrating on the polyps was more washed out once the polyps extended. And they continued to extend. After about two month they started to get their color back and today ORA red finally looks red. The polyps have yet to fully extend beyond a centimeter or so, but they clearly are happier and the coral is on the mend.
Choose a strategy, and give it time before shifting gears. If they close up immediately upon touch, o suppose it isn’t a surprise they would get annoyed by anything else that is actually stressful for it.
Good luck!
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