bubble coral size?

[fishman9168]

I have had this tank setup for 13 months now and all seems to be going fine. I initially set this up to get my wife off my back about my cichlids but now I have become hooked. It's a 30g tank with 40# live rock, cpr bakpak IIr and an Emperor 280. All corals have grown pretty fast and my favorite is the green bubble coral. My question is this... the green bubble is getting pretty darn big now and taking up alot more space that the pic shows, can it be fraged somehow? I know this is probably a stupid question but I am still relatively new to this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[kimkissyfish]

That sis certainly a pretty bubble coral.. I am hoping mine grows big... Ya that would be cool if you could frag it! I am interested in this post... Heres mine.. plain white..LOL But I do love it...

 

[kimkissyfish]

OOPS.. sily me..... Here,

 

[sammystingray]

I have no idea, but I don't see how really....you would basically have to tear it's flesh apart....perhaps someone knows, but it ain't me. I just wanted to jump in and say that has to be one of the best looking green bubbles I have seen...VERY nice color. Green ones go for the most money around here usually. I have one, and it doesn't look near as good as yours.

 

[sammystingray]

Here's a wild thought that I DO NOT RECOMMEND AND HAVE NEVER SEEN TRIED. I just wanted to toss out an idea since I have never heard of anyone fragging a bubble.....I have seen them split on their skeleton, but this usually involves death of part of the coral.....now, what if we took a rubber band and placed it around the skeleton and tightly across the middle of the corals mouth....ever see how they castrate some bulls or whatever? I wonder if that would cause the bubble to split, and then the skeleton could be sawed in half. I had one awhile ago that did poorly, and then came back....it came back as three smaller corals on one skeleton, and could have been sawed in three?? please DO NOT TRY THIS..... I am just making conversation, and once again DO NOT RECOMMEND DOING THIS, AND AM NOT SAYING TO TRY IT. did I mention.....DO NOT TRY THIS???????

 

[overanalyzer]

Hey here is a more complete description of how to propogate it:
http://www.garf.org/news10p3.html#socket
Think netpet copied the steps directly .... this one has a picture and more detail

 

[puffygrrl]

Here's my Pearl Bubble Coral. I got him about 2 weeks ago from a guy on the board who didn't want him cause he had gotten too big for his 200 gallon tank! He was 9" accross when I first got him and I swear he's almost a foot now. Bubbles have a tendancy to get BIG if they have the space and the food. Are you feeding your bubble? This will make them grow fast, remember they have zooxanthellea bacteria and anything you feed them is dessert to a certain extent. Either plan on giving him more space or taking him out soon cause he'll only get bigger. Good Luck!

 

[fishman9168]

I have done most things in this tank according to garf "bullet proof reef" procedures except for the plenum. (seems like a problem waiting to happen down the road to me), but I dont thing I have the courage nor experience to try that procedure to split this thing in two. I would just assume trade him in or fork out the bucks for a bigger tank. Mine is now almost 8" across when the bubbles are fully extended (almost the whole time the lights are on) and is in a 30 gallon tank. My wife would kill me if I killed or traded this one in so I guess I'll have to use that reasoning with her to convince her we need a bigger tank!!

 

[overanalyzer]

I'd vote you get a bigger tank!!!

 

[fishman9168]

I am however going to try to frag this monster spaghetti leather this weekend. It is getting rather unruly also with the waving around and what not. I dont think that one will be that difficult to do.

 

[sammystingray]

Just a note on the zooxanthellae "bacteria". It isn't bacteria, it is an algae. dinoflagellate is what you would call them outside a coral. The "algae" feed the coral through photosynthesis, and it definately is a completely seperate entity. Not that long ago, it was thought there was a single zooxanthellae living in corals, but there are many. Strangely.......corals closely related may have very different zooxan, and corals not closely related may have very similiar zooxan.....this kind of proves that they did evolve seperately in my opinion as well as others, and their evolution was not so much determined by each other....."corals" are two seperate lifeforms (plant and animal) living together. The coral provides shelter and access to light for the algae, and the algae feeds the coral with it's waste from photosynthesis. The coral decides how many zooxanthellae it allows to live within it's cells....ever see a coral with brown stringy stuff coming out......you were probably told it was pooping, but it may actually have been expelling some zooxanthellae to keep the balance correct. Alright, I'll stop now....I just wanted to mention it since it was called "bacteria". BTW zooxanthellae is yellowish brown, so when corals turn brown (often seen in SPS)....it often means the coral is starving and is allowing greater populations of zooxanthellae hoping they will produce more food. In more powerful lighting...you may see the corals actual color instead of the brown from heavy zooxanthellae populations since the coral will actually expel unneeded zooxanthellae as the greater light provides more opportunity for photosynthesis and require less zooxanthellae to produce the same amount of food for the coral..

 

[overanalyzer]

Originally posted by sammystingray
Just a note on the zooxanthellae "bacteria". It isn't bacteria, it is an algae. dinoflagellate is what you would call them outside a coral. The "algae" feed the coral through photosynthesis, and it definately is a completely seperate entity. Not that long ago, it was thought there was a single zooxanthellae living in corals, but there are many. Strangely.......corals closely related may have very different zooxan, and corals not closely related may have very similiar zooxan.....this kind of proves that they did evolve seperately, and their evolution was not so much determined by each other.....corals are two seperate lifeforms (plant and animal) living together. The coral provides shelter and access to light for the algae, and the algae feeds the coral with it's waste from photosynthesis. The coral decides how many zooxanthellae it allows to live within it's cells....ever see a coral with brown stringy stuff coming out......you were probably told it was pooping, but it may actually have been expelling some zooxanthellae to keep the balance correct. Alright, I'll stop now....I just wanted to mention it since it was called "bacteria". BTW zooxanthellae is yellowish brown, so when corals turn brown....it often means the coral is starving and is allowing greater populations of zooxanthellae hoping they will produce more food. It more powerful lighting...you may see the corals actual color instead of the brown from heavy zooxanthellae populations since the coral will actually expel unneeded zooxanthellae as the greater light provides more opportunity for photosynthesis and require less zooxanthellae to produce the same amount of food for the coral..
And that, folks, is why he is a Shark!!
Thanks Sammy!!!

 

[sammystingray]

I'm a shark because I won the title at the SWF tree climbing contest at the picnic. Beth was the only one that beat me. Thanks, but you must have missed my post earlier in the thread where I compare removing bull testicles to possible bubble coral fragging. Oh BTW, I thought I would explain that since I suspect many of the newer folks in the hobby may believe it is actually the coral "animal" that needs the light....we've been through this before, but I don't think recently. Corals and anemones can't and don't photosynthesize.....the algae they allow to live within their cells does, and this algae feeds them. If the balance between the two lifeforms goes wrong (many causes).....the corals may expell all of the algae living within it (bleaching) in an attempt to save it's own life. Color change under various lighting are adjustment of the zooxanthellae population by the coral animal. The algae can live outside of a host coral, anemone, etc, and technically a coral/anemone can live without the zooxanthellae if it can somehow take in enough of the right food, but they do much better together....it is considered a symbiotic relationship last I heard.......the same relationship a clown and it's host have.....they help each other out to better their chances. I am not sure if I consider an anemone/clown relationship "symbiotic", but most books say so....

 

[overanalyzer]

Originally posted by sammystingray
Thanks, but you must have missed my post earlier in the thread where I compare removing bull testicles to possible bubble coral fragging.
Not really because I was contemplating using that method to frag some muchrooms .... you know really tight rubber band arond the shroom - see if it splits yet stays attached to the same rock .....

 

[leigh]

i think the solution would be to ship the uber too big and beautiful green bubble coral to me.

 

[puffygrrl]

Thanks for the correction Sammy...I did know it was algea and not bacteria (I am working with it in lab right now), but wrote the thread late a night and a bit brain fried I wanted to add how people could see this zooxanthellea algea "in action" in thier aquariums. Aptasia are one of the many organisms that use zooxanthellea and you may notice that some are clear when they first start to grow, but a week or so later you come back and they are brown. This is what Sammy is talking about, the brown is the zooxanthellea that have been ingulfed by the Aptasia. Kinda cool

 

[susiepan]

fishman,
I must tell you, you have a very attractive tank, and that bubble is just beautiful, personally I wouldnt try anything that might harm it, unless its something that you've done before...
Just wanted to say, very nice tank...andkeep us posted if you do decide to split her...GL
Susie

 

[sammystingray]

I have to agree with Susiepan.....it's just to nice to mess with....I wouldn't if it were mine. PuffyGrrl, if that's your first typo, I am 10,000 ahead of you. I constantly type the wrong thing .