Blastos

[mrdc]

Which are faster growers ... wellsi or merlti?

 

[speg]

good question...even though I've held both at the very same time... I can't really answer that well.. Obviously wellsi is a much bigger polyp so I would only assume that merletti would be able to grow polyps faster.
Both are a bit of a pain to feed compaired to a duncan or something that extends feeder tentacles. I'd say that wellsi are easier to feed simply because of their size in compairison.
I'll also ASSUME that merletti are more calcium-needy because of the length of their skeletal base.
That's probably no help.

 

[mrdc]

I've never had merletti and I am considering a blasto at some point. The wellsi I had grew SO slow but I also didn't feed it often. I was wondering if the merletti grew faster since it was stalk based. I figured if you kept the ca, alk and magnesium in the right numbers that it would help it to grow faster. I could be tottally off and am just guessing. There might not be a good answer unless someone has tried both maybe at the same time so that they would be kept under the same conditions.

 

[speg]

I've kept both at the exact same time.. neither seemed to really grow fast at all When you're dealing with acans/duncans, blastos grow at a handycapped snails pace.

 

[mrdc]

I agree with that!! I think I will work on getting my new acans and favites to grow before worrying about blastos. If I can't get what I currently have to grow, then I surely won't be able to blastos to grow. I just need to find that magic food.

 

[kraylen]

Depends on your feeding method, blastomussa can grow just as fast as acan lords. If you utilize a no flow method with small meaty foods, you will have greater success feeding your blastomussa. They will also accept small pellets, but keep in mind blastomussa will reject slight overfeeding... which is usually the factor in not getting them to grow, when you are sure you are feeding them.

 

[mrdc]

Thanks for the reponse Kray. I just finsihed feeding everything and I have to contend too much with the cleaner shrimps so I will come up with a plan soon.

 

[kraylen]

Be careful with what you keep in your tank when you want to hand feed delicate LPS polyps. For example, some fish and inverts will go after the "easy meal," but sometimes eat a piece of polyp on accident... or develop a taste for the LPS itself. Most tangs that nip acans and what not do so because they are used to the slow digesting eater(acan) with a mouthful of food, thus like taking candy from a baby. Peppermint shrimp are also notorious for eating LPS polyps... happy reefing