NPS Dedicated Tank - Take 2

Jaco Schoeman said:
Poiro, from research I have picked up that the sting from Aiptasia nematocyst cells are more potent than that of tube anemone's...

I have had bangai cardinals swim through them, without any ill effect... I have had a shimp swim through them and not stung by them...

If you say small, then baby fish yes, but anything over 4cm should be fine IMO unless you have a HUGE tube anemone...

Fish also generally stay away from the tube nennie, so their reputation of being such varocious killers is a bit over the top... I say tube nennies is a great addition to your tank - just keep them away from coral, as their sting on coral may be a bit more damaging...;)
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Thanks Jaco,

Do you have any good links on them please?
 
impressive !
 
Fantastic stuff man. I would love a nps system 1 day.
The only advice i can give is have money for a back up skimmer pump on hand as the on and off switching will break it in due time
 
Okey, nothing much to update as I was away in December and have not introduced much to the tank...

I did however get this Tube Anemone:

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And no, it is not digitally enhanced or a sepia photo, this is the actual colour of the cerianthid. :whistling: Very nice!!!

Here are two photos of the black suncorals just after feeding on live Brine Nauplii and Cyclop Eeze - you can now clearly see the food inside the gastrovascular cavity (orange bit in the coral body) to give you an idea of the amount of food the heads take in per feeding - they eat like starving demons!!!

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PS: I had to take this photo with the flash on to illuminate the coral tissue, otherwise the coral is just plain olive / black...
 
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Oh, and here is a small video clip I took last night of the Black Suncoral eating Cyclop - Eeze... Notice how quickly the mouth opens when the tentacles draw the food in:

 
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Awesome tube nennie Jaco, I'm a big fan of them. Nice man ;)
 
WoW...tank looks amazing!

Is the Tube Anemone at a rave with its vibrant colours...what will you see, when you look at the Tube Anemone through 3D goggles :lol:

Keep it up Jaco!
 
robvdv said:
Really nice. That T. micrantha looks amazing. They have the reputation of being very difficult to keep.
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Yes I must agree. These suncorals do not give you any room for error and surely not the best option for the first suncoral in a tank.
 
Hey Jaco... I just wanted to get a bit of advice from you with regards to the Suncoral. I hope you don't mind if I ask it in your NPS Tank thread?

The one I have often totally retracts after feeding and you can see all the way down the Polyp openings. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong? I'll try get a pic of it when I feed again. I'm feeding it ever 2nd day. Brine shrimp enriched with HUFA's and mysis and Cyclopeze... It seems to be doing really well.
 
If you say retracts totally, do they like invert themselves into the "tube"? Then, do they open up again after a minute or two or does it stay entirely closed for hours on end?

Also, how do you go about feeding - target feeding with syringe? Do you switch flow off?
 
It doesn't last for hours, a few minutes, maybe 10 or so.

I'm target feeding with a syringe. I put half a coke bottle over the coral and I blow small amounts of food down to the coral. I make sure that each polyp get's food. I do this for about 30 minutes. I leave the bottle over the coral until all the polyps have been fed and are on display again. Then I remove it. I do that so the shrimps don't steal all the food.

I feed 2 frozen blocks of Brine shrimp or 1 brine and 1 mysis at each feeding. I squirt a little into the tank for the fish as well, but not much. I make 100% sure that the coral is getting enough food. The shrimp get the few pieces that haven't been eaten.
 
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Slagter said:
It doesn't last for hours, a few minutes, maybe 10 or so.

I'm target feeding with a syringe. I put half a coke bottle over the coral and I blow small amounts of food down to the coral. I make sure that each polyp get's food. I do this for about 30 minutes. I leave the bottle over the coral until all the polyps have been fed and are on display again. Then I remove it. I do that so the shrimps don't steal all the food.
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Sounds normal but take a photo of it and post...

I have noticed that when a suncoral has to consume large prey like Mysis (will get to this point now...) it will retract completely...

Smaller prey like live brine and cyclopeeze only get taken to the mouth with a tentacle then the tentacle goes back to hunting...

So this sounds fine. Normally also if the coral feels threatened like you touched it with the syringe by mistake it will retract in itself entirely...

Don't think you need to worry...

Now, on mysis;

You need to look at the size of your suncoral head vs the size of the mysis... Try not to give the suncoral a mysis the size of itself... If the mysis are very small then that should be fine, but IMO these coral seek smaller sized foods. Even if they can consume larger mysis shrimp, they digest them more difficult. Try and chop the mysis down a bit.

I compare this to a nennie trying to eat a large lobster - same thing.
 
Interresting... I don't think the mysis is too big. They are quite small in those frozen Ocean Nutrition packages. They are only slightly larger than the frozen brine shrimp. But I see what you mean... I'll just feed Brine and cyclopeze and hatch brine for them once a week.

Thanks for the help. I'll post a pic when I feed them tomorrow again.
 
Oh ja, I have seen those ocean nutrition mysis, they are not too large... the mysis I get from exotic is great for feeding fish but there are some specimens in there that I think to myself, hell, how did this giant lobster get in here... :p

You doing a great job with that suncoral, keep it up!!!
 
Damn nice tank Jaco

Looks like you have the NPS system finally running like you want it...

Im very impressed

Kudus:peroni::peroni:
 
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