Why Is My Torch Coral Closed or Dying ?

Why Is My Torch Coral Closed or Dying ?

Torch corals are some of the most beautiful off all the corals ! They are highly sought after for their amazing long waving tentacles and vibrant colors. They add lots of life and movement to your salt water aquarium.

If you have a torch coral that is not opening it can be for a number of reasons. We will list all the possible known reasons below

  1. Pests

Inspects the base of your torch coral, where the skeleton meets the flesh. There is a pest that feeds on torch coral and other Euphyllia known as a flatworm. If you do find they are easy to remove by hand or with a turkey baster. You will also want to manually remove any eggs with a toothbrush. They will form in small beige clusters. You should dip any corals you add to you aquarium with a coral dip in order to prevent pests like these. We recommended Revie or coral rx.

 

2. Flow

You want to hit the sweet spot with flow to keep torches happy and avoid having them retracted. You don’t want too much or too little. See this youtube video we prepared for nailing the perfect flow

 

3. Magnesium

Magnesium is an important trace element for coral but especially for torch. We keep our magnesium slightly elevated at 1500 to get the best looking, fat , healthy and plum torches. Use a test kit like the aqua forest magnesium test kit for reliable results.

 

4. Salt

Ensure your salt is 1.025. We reamend using a high quality refractometer and calibrating often to ensure accuracy.  At Fragbox Corals we rely on this sybon refractometer. 

 

5. Lighting 

Torch corals don’t need too much or too light , we normally place them about halfway up in our tanks. Aim for par levels of about 150

 

6. FIsh

Some fish like angel fish are known to pick on corals. Ensure you don’t have a fish that is nipping at the tentacles.

7. Disease or dead

Your torch coral may already be dead. See below in this photo one of head other coral has died

 

For more help see this video on tips and tricks for keeping torch coral