Corals?

[oscar]

what are some relatively easy, cuttle-friendly corals that i could try considering i am new to marine tanks. I have halides with cooling facilities so lighting is no issue

I am picking up my tank on saturday!!! yay! but am planning on getting some experience and some coral and plants growing before introducing my babies! Any suggestions. I love that big orange cup shaped coral in Collins old tank - can't remeber the name!!!

 

[Andy Lister]

If you are new to marine tanks then corals might not be a good place to start... pretty tricky things they are!

~Andy

 

[oscar]

Really, what about mushrooms and stuff?

I have been in aquariums freshwater for 6 years or so... what kinds of things should i learn before trying corals in my marine?

 

[Colin]

I managed quite easily to keep leather corals, mushroom anemones and a few other bits and pieces in my cuttle tank...
some pics here..

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[pipsquek]

I had a lot more trouble with fish in my first salt water tank than corals. I had especially good luck with a bit of frogspawn. It split a couple of times and I was able to trade a bit for some mushroom corals. I've also had an anemone that split into three seperate ones. It was pretty cool to watch, because the first thing you notice are two different mouths within the same arms. A couple weeks later, it's actually two different animals.

Oscar- You should make sure that you have the proper additives to keep corals alive. There is a product that I can't remember the name of that is actually live phytoplankton. You keep it in the frig and add a few drops a day depending on your tank size. Also, if you are going to keep calcerous corals, make sure you have a calcium additive. The one I used was a two part, and worked really well. I had really good growth as well as nice calcerous algae, the purplish pink stuff you find on really good live rock. If you use the right substrate, you will get some dissolved calcium from it, but not enough to support a healthy growing coral community. Stay away true hard corals, staghorn etc., until you get a better idea of what you're doing.

The best thing to do is to find out where you species of cuttle is endimic to nad reseach the corals that would be in the same water.

Good Luck!!!

 

[rrtanton]

I agree, soft corals seem to be fine, though they do generate more "stuff" in the water--mucus, terpenes, etc. I have Green Star Polyps that have produced a fabulous, luxurious carpet along my liverock, and they are just plain delightful.

I've also had surprising luck with Large Polyp Stony corals (LPS.) Not entirely sure why. They're more likely to sting (I believe one has stung me) but my octo never had a problem with them. They're also supposed to be harder to keep alive, yet again, mine are thriving. Theories on that:

I have both a Trachyphyllia sp. (open brain coral) and a Catalaphyllia jardinei (Elegance coral.) Especially in the case of the Elegance, I bought before I researched and later learned of the difficulties with these, including concerns about overharvesting from the wild...

Elegances are reputedly quite "touchy." MANY aquarists have had them die horrible deaths, and sworn them off. There is some thinking now that this may be because they corals were being given traditional reefkeeping conditions--high light, high current, ultra-clean water--when in fact their natural habitats were low-light, low-current, silty seabeds. Mine have been on the bed of my tank in low current pretty much since introduction, and seem quite happy with that (also seem quite sensitive to salinity fluctuations, fyi.)

So you might be able to use these corals, but they may be very hard to keep (my experiences seem to be quite atypical) and they may be overcollected from the wild anyway. :?

 

[Cephkid]

My Kenya tree grows like a weed! Good experiences with zoanthids and a type of hidden cup coral(didn't even know it was in there for three years, and then one day I found it alive and kickin after 3 years of neglect!). I hear xenia grows like a weed (been lookin it up for a while), and star polyps rock! (green star polyps and flower/star polyps especially!) Mushrooms are easy, and so are button polyps and sea mats. Recommended for beginners. WARNING: RESEARCH ON THE TYPE OF ZOANTHIDS BEFORE GETTING THEM AS SOME ZOANTHIDS CARRY POTENTIALLY DEADLY POISON/TOXIN IN THERE 'MUCUS' THAT IS VERY DANGEROUS IF IT GETS INTO YOUR BLOOD STREAM. (I.E. ENTERS THROUGH CUTS/SCRAPES/ETC.) There. Necessary public service anouncement done.

 

[oscar]

wow great response and advice guys!!! thanks for that

im thinking mainly leathers and xenia if i can get it settled!!

thanks! im getting excited!

 

[oscar]

i heard that hard and soft corals together have toxins which cause mysterious deaths

 

[oscar]

sorry, i was rushing off to a basketball match! What i meant was, that the chemicals and toxins which soft corals release (the mucus) is toxic to the hard corals and vica versa

incidentally, what do people think about the palytoxins in zoanthids (polyps etc) zoanthids are so common, but what if butt-burn occurs and the toxin kills my cuttle?

How many of you keep these with cuttles?

Also, my tank came with an anemone not sure what kind...doesn't look in great shape but is quite large and moving around a fair bit. What to feed it? :? how do i look after it? i might have to sell it if it proves too difficult!

Nice anemone though...

 

[Cephkid]

Stonies VS. Softies theory wrong. Nomaticysts (sweeper tentacles) on LPS (large polyped stony corals) can harm other corals (especially on the Galexia-really strong sweepers).

Zoo's toxins are only deadly on some species.

Zoo's are a bit hardier than xenia.

Anemones might be a problem with octos/cuttles as they are highly prolific(sp?) stingers, and the affects in many species are similar to a bee sting, only a bit more painful, especially if you're allergic to them.

 

[oscar]

the toxins are deadly to humans...what species though

i got the information on not mixing soft and hard corals from wetwebmedia.com

 

[Cephkid]

sorry, got a little distracted... :P The zoos species I'm not sure on. Softies VS. Stonies theory probably came about 'cause most stonies have larger sweeper tentacles than softies. However, stonies aren't any more resistant to sweepers than softies...more info on coral forums on reefcentral.com

Again, sorry!