The First Corals we ever bought!

[DAvis]

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!

 

[d2mini]

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.

 

[dcantucson]

I have some zoos up high and some down low. I spot feed once a week, myself.

We'll be expecting some pictures! :lol:

 

[DAvis]

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.

 

[sen5241b]

Are you light-acclimating these corals?

 

[DAvis]

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

 

[qxcontinuum]

I am feeding the Duncan and Hammer with brine shrimp,
Any suggestions from the LR gang would be greatly appreciated!

Hi, i wonder how you can feed the hamer corals with brine shrimp?

 

[DAvis]

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

 

[winyfrog]

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.

 

[SeaBee]

Give them reefsnow and a little zooplankton once a week.

 

[yote]

When I feed my Duncans,I use a small pipette and just squirt a tiny bit of mysis,cyclops,or rotifers into each polyp.

 

[qxcontinuum]

When I feed my Duncans,I use a small pipette and just squirt a tiny bit of mysis,cyclops,or rotifers into each polyp.

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.

 

[dcantucson]

Duncans will also take a liking to pellet food. It's easy to drop a pellet into the polyps.

 

[ltljokersbetterhalf]

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

 

[DAvis]

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!

 

[sen5241b]

You should read up on light acclimating corals.

 

[DAvis]

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?

 

[ltljokersbetterhalf]

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

 

[DAvis]

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.

 

[ltljokersbetterhalf]

i have never seen the longer tentacle even when i feed them i will try to post a pic of mine for you