Acropora?

[obsessedwithfish]

I went to the store and bought a Acropora/cauliflower the owner of course said it didn't need alot of light and was very hardy. HA! I look on this site and find out different we will see. My question is does this coral sprout tenicles the picture they show on this site does not look like my coral? Would appreciate a discription.

 

[reptilicus]

Hi,
just starting out with Acro's myself I have Acropora micropthalma which seems to be one of the easier Acro's to keep. Basically, I had to upgrade my lighting system to 400-watts of MH lighting per 2ft of tank, plus I drip kalkwasser constantly plus adding Seachem products to add extra calcium, and higher alk. etc, plus heaps of water circulation. Also good idea to feed phytoplankton once or twice a week. So yeah not the easiest coral to keep but if you can master the art you will get a stunning landscape in your tank.

 

[clayton]

Good luck reptilicus, let us know how it does.

 

[obsessedwithfish]

Originally posted by clayton:
Good luck reptilicus, let us know how it does.
Ready for this! My coral I was talking about is a brain coral I looked it up. It really bothers me that these store owners don't have a clue. It seems to be doing fine it does have tenicles that come out at night.

 

[clayton]

Originally posted by obsessedwithfish:
Ready for this! My coral I was talking about is a brain coral I looked it up. It really bothers me that these store owners don't have a clue. It seems to be doing fine it does have tenicles that come out at night.
Congratulations!! I think brain corals are one of the nicest corals there are. Although not impossible to keep, they are very demanding. If you get even a tiny area that is damaged, in an aquarium it will spread over the whole coral, thats why they rarely do well. Good luck though, I hope it does great.

 

[halide]

Originally posted by clayton:
Acropora (staghorn) are all hard corals that need masses of light, excellent water and other things that we have no idea about.
They are easy to identify as at the tip of each branch they have a large terminal polyp. Theck this and the number of tentacles on each polyp. A hard coral will have 6 or multiples of 6.
Even the Great Barrier Reef Aquarium cannot maintain these corals for long.
They should not realy be sold.
I'm a little cofused you say acro's can't be kept long term but I've read of people keeping them many years.Like the stuber colony which in Marine Fish and Reef USA there's a story by Terry Siegal and he recieved a frag from this colony in the 80's and is still alive today.I'm not trying to put you down but what you say has me a little confused also you say they have trouble keeping them alive very long how long is this.

 

[clayton]

It's true. They are very hard to keep and your average hobbiest will not be able to keep them. But nothing is impossible.
Many people also get confused with names, even the scientists are still trying to identify many species.
I did a little research for the Great Barrier Reef Aquarium in Australia. It is part of the G.B.R. Marine Park Authority and rather a world authority on reefs.
I was suprised to learn that even they have a 50% yearly mortality of there hard corals, particularly the Acroporids.
We do need to learn more about corals etc, and much of the knowledge will come through aquarists, but we should also remember that these animals do not come from an infinate source!

 

[trigga]

I have some, 400 watts of PC and that it. A $75 protien skimmer and 2 Emperor 400. All my hard corals live ( except for my 8 inch elegance). But I will just buy I new one. And I do no cleaning.