Yuma Care and discussion

[Jimbo327]

Keep us updated. My large pink yuma did the same thing (been in my system for 3+ years), left a bunch of goo at the foot, and started to look deflated, I left it alone and it withered away in about 1-2 weeks. I was depressed for awhile after it did that.

 

[Azurel]

Yea I don't think the pink is going to make it....Which is really a shame cause it was fine for 3 weeks till all the drama happened.......I am still trying to save it though....

 

[jandlms]

I just picked up a large yuma rock (for a sweet price). The polyps are green with a purple base and some great flurescent color under actinics. The rock started out (according to the former owner) as one large polyp that is still present. It has moved over the rock numerous times so that I now have a rock with over 30 small, medium, and large polyps.
I did a slow (6 to 8 hour) acclimation on Sunday and the polyps are now open. The rock is in my "ric" nano with pc lighting. The mother of all the other polyps does sem to have an extended mouth but is not "gaping" as I understan the description.
Does anyone have a pic of a gaping ric so that I may compare???

 

[Azurel]

Do you mean like the mouth on this yuma....That is the pink one in question that I am talking about as well....

That is a healthy mouth, gaping is when it is not tight and seems to not get any acrotenticles on it. It becomes short and begins to widen and open so you can see inside it....

 

[jandlms]

Thanks for the photo. If anything mine (One or two) are at the other end of the spectrum The mouth is (what seems like) abnormally elongated. I am heading out of town but when I get back I will post some pics if it is still doing this.

 

[Jimbo327]

Let me know how the antibiotic dips are working out for you. I didn't try any of the dips when my yuma melted because I didn't have any medication.

 

[fishes2889]

Yea I don't think the pink is going to make it....Which is really a shame cause it was fine for 3 weeks till all the drama happened.......I am still trying to save it though....

Any updates James?

 

[fishes2889]

I only have 2 yuma's in my tank and have recently found several babies underneath both of the mother polyps! So i guess i will do some fragging tonight.

 

[Azurel]

They both are about dead.....I haven't taken them out yet but I do not feel they will live much longer before melting.....

 

[fishes2889]

are they spitting out their guts and detaching? Thats the signs i had when some of mine died....

 

[Azurel]

They already detached, not spitting out the guts but the filaments were or are coming out from the center of the foot from underneath...

 

[fishes2889]

dang, sorry to hear that man. stupid finicky yuma's....

 

[Azurel]

Yea Just to many variables that happened with the tank all at once......Ooh well, I will get some again some time, right now I still have all of my propagated ones......

 

[gflat65]

I've lost every yuma I had except for the ones with little to no color (not bleached, just kinda drab). The nice pink and purple yumas were doing great for 5-6 weeks, then quickly disintegrated... My floridas are doing great, though.

 

[fishes2889]

bump! share your experiences please!

 

[aquarius77]

I have had about 50 yuma and every single one has melted and died. I am ashamed to admit it, but it needs discussed.

I had them in low flow and low light/shade , the tank was a 20g high with a 150w hqi above it.
My experience is pretty much like everyone elses, mouth gape, foot letting go and death.

Most of these yuma came from DFS and the last batch was hand picked by the director at live aquaria, they were his most hardy yuma. I tried shade, i tried no flow and i tried light and flow. No matter what, within a month of introduction, they were dead. My parameters are always really good and it stumps me as to why some ppl can keep them alive while the majority of us seem to have horrible luck.

 

[jessp]

anyone have advice on how to get plain yumas to color up? I got a rock w/ about 30 polyps, and it is decent/ ok bland colors. They probably have some potential though. any advice?

 

[Azurel]

I honestly think these are going to go by way of the Elegance coral to be honest.....I think that there is a bacterial infection that gets them once the stress triggers have been met weakening their immune system....

They do fine from stage 1(collector to wholesaler) and to stage 2 (wholesaler to on-line shop/LFS). The third stage of stress I think is what really does it or puts them over the top. I don't think that there is enough time in between for them to settle and regain their health before moving on again and being acclimated to another system.

Not to mention if there is multiple Yumas in these holding tank that are infected and week who is to say that it isn't being spread across the majority of the Yumas in the holding tanks. So when the wholesaler ships out or the guy comes in and cherry picks they all look great only because the infection hasn't truly set in yet.

So they go into the LFS or On-line shop site and we buy them which is what in most cases maybe a week at best that the LFS or on-line place has them before being shipped out to guys like us? So in that case they have traded hands far to fast for anyone in the distribution chain to recognize that they are passing off sick corals.
The only way I can see around it is either The LFS or On-line shops hold them for longer periods of time before selling much like some places to with fish and quarantining them for health. I can honestly say the last 2 wild caught ones I had were in excellent health when I received them. They showed no signs what so ever of the typical sick yuma till after I had the 5 day power outage and I only had a single power filter and my MH lights.

Which I think put one of them into some kinda photo shock and then the typical sickness signs started to show. They were both next to each other as well and I honestly believe that the other one which still showed no signs of it was contaminated by the sick one and both within a month were slimming and decomposing......

Is there something we can do? Not sure I tried Furan2 dips for bacterial infection, I tried SW/iodine dips, I even tried tobramyacin I had on hand for my eye infection I got from not washing my hands after fragging zoas and that didn't work either. I have also tried the multiple flows, lighting etc.....Nothing, not one thing worked. Two years ago I bought 7 hot pink Yumas at the tune of $125+ each and not one of them are still alive today.

The best bet I think is to start propagating(aquaculture) from ones that have survived to increase the supply. The 2 I have right now were both 2nd or 3rd generation offspring from ones that have made it in the distribution chain and they are tough as nails. They made it thorough the power outage while the wild ones didn't and they never showed any signs of stress from that period either.....

 

[Azurel]

So there is only a few choices we have either buy from fellow reefers that have them or not buying them from retailers that don't hold them long enough to see if they are going to crap out. We can also ask LFS that have them to hold them for us till they settle and see in the mean time if they are going to make it.....Other then that I don't think we have to many options as far as I can see nobody is doing any scientific work on these like Eric Borneman did with Elegance corals. Which I think should be done but we as hobbyist don't have the capital to spend on that type of research.

As far as coloring up some just don't they are the color they are and no matter what lighting they will be that color.....I have never had any that were drab and then color morphed or got more vivid. All the ones I have had were vivid to begin with(lucky me I guess). That is not to say all were the hot rare type either, some were just plain green and stayed that way.....You have a pic of them?

 

[jessp]

ok here are a few pics, w/ flash and w/o. there are about 18 medium sized polyps and a whole dump load of babies on this rock. A FTS for shiggles, although you can't see the yuma rock because i have a frag rack that i don't like included in my pic.