Nipping recovery for acans?

s_tempest · Dec 10, 2019

I have some acans that have been retracted/shriveled/not-puffy for a while now (months). After thinking through lighting and water chemistry (mine is good enough, but I’m typing on an iPad...), I also want to consider nipping by my fish. The pieces have held color, but they’re all pulled in - such as what bad lighting, bad water chem and/or nipping each could result from.
Note that I’ve not observed nipping, but I have a hippo, a yellow tang & two dwarf angels - all potentially implicated by others in acan nipping.
So I made a test.
Last night I built an acclimation box out of egg crate & moved the acans into it. If the retraction *IS* nipping, how long should I expect it to take until I see these protected acans getting back to full & puffy? In other words, how long to know if my test provides an answer?

DSC reef · Dec 10, 2019

I would say its definitely from nipping from what your describing. Pretty much all the fish you have can nip but I suspect the dwarfs. At this point the nipping will not stop so having micromussa in the tank might be a no go. If the coral is not to damaged then a few weeks should show positive signs of healing. Don't feed them unless you see a feeding response.

s_tempest · Dec 11, 2019

Thanks - so if it is nipping and they're going to recover, I should see some improvement in 1-2 weeks? I'm trying to get a sense of when I could know if my test is a success or failure.
And if it is nipping, then I will try to give away the acans locally or see if my LFS would take them. As much as I love the colors of my corals, my wife loves the angels and tangs. :)
Maybe it's only a matter of time, but I have a colony of Acanthastrea echinata that is doing well. Maybe the little nippers haven't found that yet!