Torch troubles

My brother had a torch with 4 heads on it that was thriving in his aquarium until the addition of his two clowns. The clowns had basically hosted the torch and picked at it until it is down to just half of one head having tentacles. In an effort to save it we moved the torch to my 50gal tank. It's my first coral. Mag, Calcium, and all other levels are perfect. pH is 8.1 SG 1.024. The only real change is I have more white lights where as he had half white and half actinic. he's been in the tank two days now, and has yet to open up. When should I see improvement if any and when should I pull it. I will post a photo when I get off of work in the am. Thanks in advance.

 

hard to say, by your discretion he sounds like a really badly stressed coral and the change of lightings may not help. iv lost a frogspawn to my clowns back in the days for the same reason.

its not the clowns that host the coral/ anemone but rather the anemone that hosts the clowns.

 

Sounds like it was not removed from the clowns soon enough... The Skelton where the heads attach can be very sharp, and when the clowns rub against them, aggressively, like most do. It cuts and tears the flesh at the base of the heads.

I would say move to a low flow, low light area and leave it be. Then just hope for the best and keep up on water quality. You say levels were good but can you give actual numbers to help us help you better.


-Alex-

 

pH 8.1
SG 1.024
Mag 1400ppm
Amonia Nitrate and Nitrite 0
Don't remember calcium but it was WNL
PO4 was .25

 

Ok we need dKH test for alk. If your testing ph instead of dKH id imagine your dKH may be fairly high.

DKH is more important in saltwater than ph. Ph can be 7.8 in saltwater and everything doing fine, as long as dKH is between 7-12. Most people starting out think need to test ph and don't know about dKH. They then dose buffer, like kent dKH buffer to raise ph. It will only raise ph for a short time and then fall back down. But raise dKH.


-Alex-

 

I don't remember the value exactly but it was also fine.

 

Picture as promised.

 

ouch....looks dead

 

The white head still has tentacles in it. should I cut off the dead heads

 

If there are still tenticles it has a chance, but will likely take a long time. Will need excellent water quality, not too bright and need food. You won't be able to feed it though, but adding some vitamins to the water, such as boyd vitachem etc.. may help. Good luck.