Plate Coral Care

[RollTide15]

So I bought this light purple tinted Plate Coral over a week ago. he seems to be doing fine. For the first 5 days he did some weird stuff like shrinking in his tentacles or blowing his body up real big but still having limp tentacles. But now he looks like he did in the store.

I notice he has like a little mouth in the center. Can he actually eat pieces of fish food? Should I feed him a couple of pellets? The LFS told me that as long as my water quality is good and doing WC do readd trace elements he does not need food, just light. I did read online that you can feed them Phytoplankton so I bought some Zoo-Planktos M. Is this ok to feed him?

Admiral Nelson wanted to get in the shot.

Also is this Aptasia?

 

[Smitty]

I noticed that mine like medium light and medium flow...and yes, you can feed them small pieces of a meaty food and they'll take it, but it isn't necessary. And keep it on the sandbed.

 

[Smitty]

And that second pic looks like a ball anemone to me.

 

[2XAl]

my buddy had a snail fall into his plate coral a couple of weeks ago and it ate it. I love those corals.

 

[RollTide15]

No one answered if that ZooPlanktos is good to feed him? Also if I feed him food should I feed him pellets, frozen shrimp, or something else?

 

[RollTide15]

And that second pic looks like a ball anemone to me.

Yeah that thing has stayed in the same place since I got the live rock. Looks like an anemone though. It is like in a hard little crater, not sure if it just moved in there or if the hard white part is part of the organism.

 

[Ted]

I have seen many videos of people feeding pellets to plate corals. I use to feed my acans (when I had them) pellets they loved them.

 

[little_fish]

LPS corals eat larger stuff than zooplankton. That is more for SPS and some softies. I would it the same stuff you feed your fish, larger meaty items.

Also if you are feeding pellets, I would suggest switch to frozen foods,

 

[RollTide15]

LPS corals eat larger stuff than zooplankton. That is more for SPS and some softies. I would it the same stuff you feed your fish, larger meaty items.

Also if you are feeding pellets, I would suggest switch to frozen foods,

I feed them pellets and frozen mysis shrimp. Half the people I know say frozen and the other half say pellet, so I did half 'n half haha. Though it seems like sometimes some of the fish do not like certain parts of the frozen shrimp and they spit it out. Thus creating alot of uneaten food. But I still feed them it anyway.

 

[RollTide15]

Also I think yall may be right about the ball anemone. It has clear tentacles with little balls on the tips. It is very small. Is it considered a pest? Should I kill it, how?

 

[little_fish]

I've never heard of ball nems being pests, I have a few and I am rather fond of them.

The issue with the dry stuff is that they tend to be high in nitrates and phosphates, and so is mysid shrimp too. I really like to feed rod's food, it is a really nice blend of different frozen foods. Other people like to get a bunch of different frozen foods and rotate through them. Remember, variety is the spice of life and key to good nutrition.

 

[ErinCahir]

They're not considered pests. They don't get very big and they don't reproduce quickly.

I let all mine stay.

 

[Smitty]

The ball anemones aren't anything to worry about...they'll disappear after while.

 

[salt_for_brains]

Also I think yall may be right about the ball anemone. It has clear tentacles with little balls on the tips. It is very small. Is it considered a pest? Should I kill it, how?

Pseudocorynactis caribbeorum or white ball corallimorph are actually related to mushroom corals. They pack a sting. Some aquarists love to keep them while others do not.

 

[sea goblin]

I know this is a bit late but it looks to me like you have Florida live rock and that is a solitary cup coral They are very hardy and are safe to keep in your tank