Ricordea bleaching

holdyourlight · Mar 8, 2009

Having some issues with a couple of my ric's bleaching out. The odd thing is that one will start to get bleached while another one right next to it looks great:squigglemouth:
They are about 2 feet under my T5's in my 75g. Any ideas?

flricordia · Mar 9, 2009

You sure it is bleaching and not melting? Rarely will a ricordea florida bleach from too much light. I have kept the best ones directly under intense MH.
There is a disease/fungus/bacteria (not sure what it is) that attacks ricordea and can cause them to dissentigrate. I have not had it myself but I have witnessed a tank full of rics at a local reef shop succumb in less then a few days time. I would suggest removing it and cutting it up into small pieces with a pair of clean, sharp scissors and toss any parts that look bad. Place the keepers into a small bowl with pieces or rock lining the bottom and cover with mesh. Place this in an area where some good flow and light and they should attach eventually.
Would be good if you could get another pic. It really does not look like there is anything wrong with it.

holdyourlight · Mar 9, 2009

This has been going on for quite some time now, so if it is a disease, it is VERY slow and only attacks certain rics. In the pic you can see that the 'base' of the ric is translucent whereas it used to be a deep purple...

fishes2889 · Mar 9, 2009

I dip all of my rics when i get them. Certain pest do live under the polyp itself like flricordia said so a nice bath of lugols/iodine for a couple minutes to eliminate the pests is the next step i would take. Also, i take a turkey baster once a week and clean around and under each of my rics to blast pests or detritus away.

I have had rics bleach and it does take a long time for them to recover from it. Certain polyps will bleach if shocked into a certain lighting system but quickly acclimate. All about shading for the first couple of weeks to avoid this long outdrawn bleaching recovery. IME.