Purple Candy Canes Different than Green/Blue

[Pgh Paul]

I'm looking for advice on purple candy canes. I've had green, neon green, blueish candy canes and they've done very well, especially the neon green. Because of their success, I really wanted to add the variety of the purple with the green mouths, but they just don't seem to be doing well in the same environment. The neon green, especially, but also the other green and blue seem to put out their feeders at night and when there's food present, but the purple always look very thin and skeleton-like and I haven't seen much growth. Are they that different in the way they act? The pictures attached aren't mine, but I feel like they convey what I'm getting at. I've done a lot of research and I can't find anyone discussing the difference between these different candy cane corals...

 

[SrDudley]

How long have you had them? Maybe they are still settling in although not as fluffy as your others they do still look very nice! Great variety of candy canes!

 

[The_Paradox]

Purple and green candy cane is hands down my slowest growing coral. I have one on the same rock as a teal. Teal adds 3-4 heads a month. Purple green maybe a head every 3 months. Not much help I know but now at least you have company in the fail boat.

 

[tharbin]

I have Kryptonite and Purple Rim Candy Canes and have a similar experience although my Purple Rims are splitting but very slowly. The Kryptonite by comparison is like a weed in just a few weeks longer than I've had the Purple Rims the Kryptonites have split from two heads to eleven heads. The Purple started to split about a month ago and still hasn't finished and in the process the purple has become much less vibrant and has a greenish hue. It's too soon to tell whether the color will come back or not. I suspect it likes less light than the Kryptonite. It also took a while to start getting a feeding response from the Purple Rim. I started feeding every other night even if it didn't put out its tenacles. It started to respond after about a week. I think the Oyster feast is what finally got it to respond. I feed it, and most of my LPS a combination of either Benepets or Reef Roids, Oyster Feast, and Gold Pods. If you look at the posts in my build thread I have recent shots of the Purple Rim before and during the split. Good luck but I think they are just plain slower and maybe like less light.

 

[Reef Wizard]

Here is my lavender candy cane. He has tripled in size and is super fluffy. He hasnt grown more heads but just current ones have enlarged. Excuse the GHA :) CUC WIP. Sits around 60-75 par with lower flow

I am told they will tighten up if there is more flow on them