Help me ID my new corals... Please....

[Ctimpson]

Ok, so I went to a wholesaler yesterday and picked up some more things for the tank... The First picture has a skeletal branching structure and looks like you could simply break off individual branches to frag it, but I am not sure... It has purple anemone like arms with bright green centers... the second pic, I think is a flower pot, that is what I was told... The clowns are either Sebea Clowns, or saddle clowns, not sure which...Also, the younger of the two clowns swims constantly in like a up down, rolling motion, like he is swimming over hills, Is this normal? If you guys could help me ID them I would be greatful...Let me know what you think of the tank....

 

[Bifferwine]

The first is a torch. It's in the same family as hammers and frogspawn. Very easy to keep.

The second, you are right, is a flowerpot -- goniopora. Extremely difficult to keep alive. Freak has kept one successfully, he can give you some pointers. Some LFS won't even sell flowerpots since their survival rate is so low. I am actually surprised that your LFS sold it to you with such a new tank. Good luck, you have to feed the flowerpot frequently.

 

[Bifferwine]

PS - I am currently nursing a bleached flowerpot back to health, and am having to hand-feed it daily :(. It is looking better than when I got it a couple weeks ago, and I have hope that it will recover and get its color back. Although it is really slow going. They sure are pretty, and it looks like you got a nice, healthy one.

 

[Ctimpson]

What are you feeding the flowerpot biff?

 

[reeffreak]

I'm going to second Biff.

The first is a Torch Coral(Euphyllia gabresens),I find that they do better with occasional feeding,maybe once a week with zooplankton like cyclopeeze even mysis.BTW,awesome torch,it looks like it has a lot of branches.

The second might of not been a wise choice.Its a Flowerpot coral aka Goniopora stokesi species.They do best in mature tanks and need to be spot fed.My method is to turn off the pumps and gently squirt mashed mysis,cyclops and oyster eggs through a turkey baster.They are slow eaters so if you have other fish/crabs that harass it while its eating than try cutting a soda bottle,placed over the coral.You can skirt the food straight into the cap.That particular Goni needs to be fed about three times a week.If all that that sounds daunting,it is.With no disrespect,you should really research or ask some of us first.Good luck with her anyways.

Weird,your two clowns look like two different species.The larger looks like Sebae and the smaller looks like a Black Saddleback.

 

[Bifferwine]

Hee hee I was so excited about the corals I forgot about the clowns!

I've been feeding my flower pot a mix of cyclopeeze and oyster eggs. Those oyster eggs are made out of GOLD, man! It costs $25 for a tiny little cup!

 

[Ctimpson]

Can you frag the torch by simply breaking off one of the branches... I don't really want to try it, but would like to frag it... It's base is made up of like 12 different branches...

 

[reeffreak]

Give it a little time to adjust to its new conditions before fragging,say a month or so.You can use bone cutters which looks like wire pliers to me.Many online vendors and LFS sells them as well as hardware stores.

 

[ReefKeeper]

i always just use an old pair of side cutters to frag my frogspawn. works great !! just remember to cut as colse to the base as you can because the tissue sometimes runs pretty far into the branch.

 

[Ctimpson]

Whats the best way to frag my toadstool?

 

[ReefKeeper]

i always cut a "ring" off of the cap and cut it into 1" pieces. then thread it to a piece of LR until it attaches then remove the thread. i have an article about this somewhere ... let me see if i can find it for you.

 

[Ctimpson]

I would totally appreciate it ReefKeeper... I just don't want to kill a perfectly good coral, trying to frag it... Thanks in advance...

 

[ReefKeeper]

this is the video from the article, but i cant find the article. i hope this helps some ...

 

[ReefKeeper]

these are the basic steps after the cutting ...

 

[Ctimpson]

Thats awesome Bro... Thanks a million... Any video's on fragging mushrooms or torch corals... Also, how long do you wait to put the mother coral back in the tank, due to the toxic chemicals they are known to release?

 

[ReefKeeper]

i do have one on mushrooms that i am currently working on, but it is not finished yet.
i put the mother colony straight back in the tank. my entire system is plumbed together, but i run carbon on the overflow lines of my frag tank. after fragging a softy i usually change out the carbon every few days until the colony is healed.

 

[Bifferwine]

Mushrooms are easy. You cut it into pieces like a pizza, making sure that every frag has a piece of the mouth. Then what I have done is put live rock rubble into plastic cups, put one frag into each plastic cup, take a piece of netting or mesh (that you can buy at a fabric or craft store) and rubberband the mesh on top of each cup. Then put the cups in your tank and the frags will soon attach themselves to the rock rubble in the cups.

 

[Ctimpson]

the mouth being the dot in the middle of the shroom, or the base the attaches to the rock itself...

 

[Bifferwine]

The dot in the center of the side facing you when it's open.

 

[ReefKeeper]

here is a short video of me cutting a mushroom ...