What is this???

[michelle1981]

Well, I just went to my LFS and picked up what I thought was a nice piece of candy cane coral. Pretty much my first "real" coral. All I have now are zoas and mushrooms. When I stuck the bag in to start floating I noticed some different corals on it too. One looks like some type of SPS but I'm not fmailiar with any of it so could someone take a look and tell me what you think?

 

[michelle1981]

i cropped it so only the weird thing is in this pic.

 

[bang guy]

Looks similar to Seriatopra sp.

 

[michelle1981]

Is that a good thing? Do i need to do anything special to it?

 

[yosemite sam]

Yeah, it looks like a species of Seriatopora, commonly called a birdnest coral. They are an SPS coral, but relatively hardy. They do best in good flow and high lighting. What kind of lighting do you have? You might want to try and frag it off of the other coral, since it does better in higher flow.

 

[wangotango]

Originally Posted by Michelle1981
Is that a good thing? Do i need to do anything special to it?
Need a fair amount of light, flow, plus stable conditions. Pretty easy as far as SPS go. You could probably break it off the candy and glue it in a better spot.
-Justin

 

[wangotango]

Guess you beat me to it Yosemite

.
-Justin

 

[bang guy]

Above all, Seriatopora need a LOT of chaotic waterflow. They do best with a lot of light too but most important is waterflow.

 

[bang guy]

I agree with the above posters. Break it off and glue it to another rock in a very high flow area in the top part your tank.

 

[michelle1981]

ok, cool. I have 2x175w mh 10k's on the tank and two koralias (2 and a 3). I'll break it off and glue it to a frag disk thing and place it in a high flow area. I never get cool hitchhikers. I'm stoked! There's a feather duster and three heads of blueish xenia I believe on it too!

 

[michelle1981]

Thanks so much everyone!!! I never would have figured out what it was!!

 

[yosemite sam]

By the way, don't put it right in front of the powerhead, just make sure there's a lot of indirect flow.

 

[steve24]

nice buy

feed the candy canes every other day and they multiply fairly fast

 

[michelle1981]

feed them what? I have DT's I put in there, do I need to hand feed them as well?

 

[steve24]

i feed mine mysis shrimp and or cyclopeeze or marine cuisine using a turkey baster. i thaw and or mix the food in a small cup with some tank water, suck it up in the baster to feed them. works for me

 

[yosemite sam]

Originally Posted by steve24
nice buy

feed the candy canes every other day and they multiply fairly fast

You don't really need to feed them that often (if at all). In fact, overfeeding can easily lead to algae problems. I feed my LPS some cyclopese and mysis maybe once a week to 10 days and they do fine.

 

[bronco300]

i feed mine the same, mysis and cyclopeeze...i feed a couple times per week...but when i feed mysis i do direct feedings, not just a cube in there and left it go wherever....
and for the records: first real coral, and you already have zoos?!

zoos are the probably the best coral you could ever get

 

[michelle1981]

I know, I love my zoas, probably my favorites so far. But you know what I mean. These seem like I may actually have to work at keeping them not just dump in some phyto and make sure my lights are on.