The First Corals we ever bought!

DAvis

DAvis

Reefer Madness
Hi all!

We were at out local reef store this weekend for the long awaited Frag sale. Folks from all over bringing their tanks and frags, and tank bred fish. It was a fantastic event put on by the owners (who are hobbyists first, businessmen second!).

We picked up the following:
tiny orange Zoanthus sp.
Red Mushroom / nice rock and lots of nice hitchhikers!
Duncan (3 polyps)
Branching Hammer (2 polyps)

I have the Zoa up high, the Duncan and Hammer in the middle, and the mushroom down lower. All kind of have medium flow, depending on which way the wavemaker is operating.

I am feeding the Duncan and Hammer with brine shrimp, but I'm not doing so good! They close but I'm not sure they got anything. I've turned off the pumps when feeding. How do you feed your Duncan's and Hammer's? Any suggestions? I don't want to harm them with my love!

They open up rather quickly after feeding, don't know if that is good or bad. Should feed at night, I imagine too!

Any suggestions from the LR gang would be greatly appreciated!
 
Congrats!

In my experience, zoas like to be down low. Everything else sounds about right.
And I've never spot fed my corals, although i know other people do.
 
I have some zoos up high and some down low. I spot feed once a week, myself.

We'll be expecting some pictures! :lol:
 
Here's a not so good cell phone picture of the tank! In the foreground (very small!) is the Duncan. And the Hammer is on the left, with the mushroom below.
 

Attachments

  • newcoral.webp
    newcoral.webp
    38.3 KB · Views: 452
I had the lights off for 24 hours, just the moonlights at night. I am playing with the lights because of the algae, so this may help (or hinder!?) acclimation?
I think I will move the Zoa down though. Can't see it up high!
Thanks sen!
David
 
Qx - I just dropped some over their tentacles, and they wrapped inward and closed up for a while. Supplemental feeding, I've read, is recommended but not necessary. Correct me if I'm wrong, anyone! :D
 
Supplement feeding is fine, just be careful not to overfeed. especially a nano. If you want to do this I would feed only once a week or once every two week.

If you duncan is closing it is most likely getting food.
 
When I feed my Duncans,I use a small pipette and just squirt a tiny bit of mysis,cyclops,or rotifers into each polyp.
 
yote said:
When I feed my Duncans,I use a small pipette and just squirt a tiny bit of mysis,cyclops,or rotifers into each polyp.
Click to expand...


and hammer's
I am interesting in your answer since i do have some nice hammer corals but i've never feed them close to them.
I've noticed they do have two raised bumps with some antennas coming in and out. They used to to that a lot before but not now.
 
my duncans i take a lil syringe and squirt food into each polyp atleast 2 times a week but i have a large tank but as previously stated with a smaller tank you wont spot feed as often
 
Thanks yote, dcantuscon and ltljokersbetterhalf! I don't know how quickly they respond to feeding, but they look better than they did 4 days ago in the reef store! Maybe even a little bigger?!? Who knows?!

Thanks for your help and comments one and all!
 
Thanks sen5241b! I have and I also inquired about that in the store. It was less than 15 min, from their tank to mine. It was suggested to slowly acclimate, to temp, water conditions, and leave the light off for 24 hrs, then do partial lighting, and place all in low to mid level in tank. All opened immediately in the tank! I'm sure if they were a more sensitive species, they would have given me a more stringent procedure. I moved the Zoa lower, as I had that placed too high. All appear to be thriving in the short term! I know some need to be acclimated over weeks.

Any other thoughts on this?
 
im not sure baout the acclimating over weeks but i do know that my duncans like only a little flow they do good in low flow in the middle of the tank if they get too much flow they also dont open properly
 
That's smack-dab where we have them! Thanks LJBH. Do you see the feeding tentacles often? It's fully open, but I don't think I've seen the longer feeding tentacles.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Starfyre1
Shrinking soft corals
Replies
6
Views
6K
blazend
blazend
Reef79
Acan
Replies
7
Views
1K
Reef79
Reef79
Aquarian
Aquarian's 36g Bow Front
22 23 24
Replies
474
Views
52K
Ian
Ian
Kizmar
Coral Variety
Replies
6
Views
891
Northstar24
N
LoveJC03
Coral Feeding?
Replies
3
Views
921
Smitty
Smitty
Back
Top