Ricordea Yuma care and trials tribulations

[Invert]

First off,
Thanks to Azurel,
For starting this thread.

I have 3 Yuma's in my tanks.
All 3 were Aqua Cultured by Hobbyists.

1st Yuma:
Is doing great, and has for some time.
It was collected by a Local Hobbyist and has produced several babies.
Color: Purple/Brown Base & Green

2nd Yuma:
Is doing fare, always open.
Color: Faint Yellow Base & Brown

3rd Yuma:
Is a PIA.
It will be doing great for a month, then look like it is going to die.
Then after a week or so, it will be back to looking great.
Color: Fluorescent Orange

I was wondering:
Are the highly sought after Colors collected at deeper depths than the common " Ugly " colors ?
Seeing that lighting plays a big factor in there survival and not to " Fry " them when they first enter your tank.

The best looking Yuma (Fluorescent Orange)
that I have ever seen was in someones Display Tank,
in the very back with " No " direct light.
It was 4+ inches across and very healthy.

I feed my Ricordea Florida several times a week. They would eat every day if I had the time.
I attempt to feed my Ricordea Yuma, but they never seem to eat.

If Yuma's were easy to keep, everyone would have them.
I think I will spend most of my $$$ on Ricordea Florida.

Just my 2 cents

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

thanks for this thread. i just bought a nice orange/blue yuma and it is shrinking.
what about aquacultured yumas? have you noticed the same problems with shipping stress and photo acclamation? pacific east has a nice orange blue yuma that they sell. maybe ask dr mac if he has had the problems, and how he has overcome them? btw i did not get mine from them, and i paid more than twice the price.

I think aquacultured yumas are waaay hardier. Probably because they can deal with the stress of shipping much better. Imo aquacultured yumas that are purchased locally are no problem to acclimate because they don't have to be shipped.

I flew into Maryland two Novembers ago just to speak with Dr. Mac about his facility and talk yumas. He is a very nice guy and very knowledgable. He keeps them in shallow tanks with VHO's around 2 feet from the water. The big most desireable wild yumas he had did look happy under his lights. I do know that he has had his fair share of casualties in the yuma game much like everyone else.

 

[cwegescheide]

Recently I have started actively collecting unique Florida Rics and a few Yumas. I have a shallow 120 gallon tank and feed flake VERY heavily a few days / week and autofeeders all other days. I have a few red/orange Yumas with kindof a purple base. I've had these over a year now, fragged them a few times by slicing right thru the mouth and they (so far) have been doing fine. I've probably collected a dozen unique Florida Rics and 2 or the Yumas so far.

For those of you that feed them what do you feed? How often?

 

[deepbluesea]

i have four types of yumas all are wild collected origonaly.a few are in my galery if you wanto look.my impressions on them are as follows.low light mild flow no feeding for the first month.graduly increase light and try feeding if they dont feed dont try again for another month this will stress them.i have had all but one of these for several years now at about six months i usualy start getting babys from them.i dont split them i let them drop them on thier own unlike my fla rics.
my tank i have the ricordea in is a 30 breeder 36x18x12 deep i have a four bulb t5 ho for lighting x2 420 nm x1 10k and one 03 actinic 10 hr photoperiod.i have roughly 1000 gph water movement.temprature is 78 i dont check water chemistry unless the corals dont look right i do know my ph is 8.3.not alot of imfo sorry but every little bit helps.

 

[deepbluesea]

oops i feed mine omega 2 small sinking pellets.

 

[tclipse]

I have 4 yumas (3 blue base with orange bulbs, just like the picture to the right in the post above mine... 1 dark purple base with green bulbs).... not sure if they are WC or AC but all 4 feed nicely and are doing well.... growth is fairly similar to my florida rics... a bit slower than most of the other corals I have, but they look happy so I probably won't change things up. I target feed 1-2x week with mysis & enriched brine.

I have them under 4 bulb T5, 2 ATI blue+, 1 ATI aquablue, 1 KZ fiji purple... about halfway up in a 20G.

 

[slimy fish]

Thanks for starting this thread. I checked with one of my wholesalers and he said what is going on is that they are being collected fairly deep in cooler water and low light. He thinks they are being hit with too much light and too high of water temperatures without the proper acclimation. He has better success with them if he keeps them in about 70 degree water under just actinics for a few weeks or longer before selling them. I do not know if he is right but he deals directly with the divers so he does have some direct knowledge of how they are being collected and held. He also thinks some of them are already dieing before they reach the stores, especially the super bright colored ones. I hope this helps.

 

[Azurel]

Thanks for starting this thread. I checked with one of my wholesalers and he said what is going on is that they are being collected fairly deep in cooler water and low light. He thinks they are being hit with too much light and too high of water temperatures without the proper acclimation. He has better success with them if he keeps them in about 70 degree water under just actinics for a few weeks or longer before selling them. I do not know if he is right but he deals directly with the divers so he does have some direct knowledge of how they are being collected and held. He also thinks some of them are already dieing before they reach the stores, especially the super bright colored ones. I hope this helps.

That is great info to think about.......When I had my tank I had thought about that but never had the abilitiy to test it cause of limited room to set-up another tank. I wondered many times if something like that was the case with temp, I did photo acclimate them for a month or more before even thinking about moving them out of almost complete shade. But never in cooler water......Good stuff thanks.

 

[tfp]

I'm starting to wonder if even the newest "maricultured" yumas that are coming in will make it long-term. I picked up 10 of them that looked colorful and healthy that have been at one of my LFS for at least 4 months. Got them during my lunch break and took me 6 hours before getting them dipped and in a bowl of rubble. 2 hours after being in my tank with just moonlights on...a few of them didn't look so good. the next morning...more didn't look too good.

i think they don't like to be handled at all. maybe me picking thru them at the LFS, dipping them (coral rx) and transfering them stressed them out . i truly hope these guys make it as it set me back a few bucks.

could it also be that the multi-colored, striped ones are actually bleached solid variants? i never see tank-raised striped ones for sale...just solids or solids with colored rims.

 

[Nano sapiens]

Yumas are a beautiful coral. I've had about a 50% success rate with them so far in a 12g, unfiltered nano tank.

Successes: I have a wild collected 'orange on a purplish base' one that has been with me for 7 or 8 years now and produced 2 offspring. I remember when I first placed it in my old 50g tank it was too close under the PC lighting and it ejected its zoanthellae and shrivelled up, but I was able to get it back to health by placing it into partial shade. I also have a locally aquacultured 'Tangerine' for about a year now that has done well under various lighting intensities.

Failures: 2 beautiful direct imports from Indonesia (Rose and a Aquamarine). When I went to place the coral in the tank, the substrate that the Aquamarine one was attached to broke and tore the foot. About one week later both had melted. About one week after that the steel blue one melted, too.

Too soon to say: Wild collected 'Olive-green-bluish with gold center' one that has been in partial shade and low flow for about two weeks now. Eats mysis once a week and doesn't stretch for light, so I've got my fingers crossed that it is in its 'comfort zone'.

Shipping stress is the biggest issue for these corals. Buying local aquacultured stock is undoubtedly a better option.

 

[Quinn123]

Wow! I thought something was going wrong with my tank, so I test, I move my yumas around thinking that it would save it. The end result was I lost the coral, now after these post I realize I am not the only one with this problem, all these time I thought yumas was easy, and was frustrating because thinking there was something wrong with my tank. Good to know guys

 

[buddythelion]

*sigh* my favorite yuma is melting away... has the hole in the center and I just checked the foot. Guts coming out... It was truly my favorite coral.

Not my photo, but it's the same yuma. It was a massive 4"

I'm pretty much heart broken after this one... I think I'm going to stay away from the higher end yumas now.

 

[Braves Fan]

Wish I would have read this first, but I just ordered one from the LFS. Guess we will see how it goes when it gets here. I have a orange on in the tank that seems to be doing great.

 

[3Twinklets]

Great information. A Yuma was on my list. I think I am going to scratch that. I do have 3 Elegance corals though.......

 

[intricate_reefer]

Here is my favorite one out of 4 yumas in my 6g. Have had it for about 2 years 3-4" and has had one baby since I have had it.

 

[3Twinklets]

Wow! That is beautiful! Do you know if it was aquacultured or wild. Where did you get yours?

 

[3Twinklets]

I have asked Dr Mac for his opinion. Maybe we will hear from him. I really, really wanted a Yuma. I just bought a Godspawn shroom. Hope it does well.:squigglemouth:

 

[3Twinklets]

Here is what Becky from Pacific East Aquaculture says "Generally speaking I would say aquacultured anything is better than it's wild counterpart, if it's available. Yuma's aren't something that we see a lot of available cultured. Most are wild and yes, sometimes they can be a bit tricky. They are sensative to lighting and water quality and definately more difficult to keep than Ricordea Florida are. But, we've kept plenty of them long term here, it can be done. The biggest problem we have is light shock, and we are very careful to start them out in our lowest light systems and let them get acclimated."

 

[intricate_reefer]

I have had it for about a year and a half. I got it from a local reefer and it was about 2-3"

 

[intricate_reefer]

Dude that god spawn is sick. There is one on eBay right not. They are kinda like those bounce shrooms. I have seen one and man are they crazy. Where did you get yours?