Your First Hard Corals: LPS Hard Corals

[Boegie]

Thanks for a great thread.

I just love Candy Cane and Trumpet corals - really easy to keep.
I did not get any Brain corals yet because I was under the impression that they need to be target fed. Will check them out for my next buy.
Bubble coral -did not buy one yet as I am a bit scared because of the tenticals.

 

[Jeann1]

I wish my tank would now settle - I want my new family members!

Defenatly getting some :

Candy Cane - (Caulastrea furcata)
Trumpet Coral - (Caulastrea curvata)
Brain Corals - (Trachyphyllia sp.)
Bubble Corals - (Plerogyra sp.)
Fox Coral - (Nemenzophyllia turbida)
Brain Coral - (Favites spp.)

 

[Jhavenga]

Thanks for sharing Dallas! At the moment I only have a few softies. I still need to upgrade my lighting before I venture onto LPS, but I'm sure to return to your thread once I do start looking in that direction.

 

[Keanan]

Excellent thread Dallas.

 

[xtreme]

@dallasg
How's mine doing

 

[dallasg]

@dallasg
How's mine doing

looking very plump and healthy, do you feed him?
you can try giving him some mysis or brine shrimp after lights out if you want.

 

[xtreme]

nope never, lights off there is no tenticals, did try once

 

[dallasg]

well it looks very happy and healthy where it is

 

[Dane]

thanks dallas great thread. I'd suggest a caution with the bubbles, fox and euphylias in general that they often ship poorly. Extra care must be taken not to damage their fleshy polyps against their own skeleton. Other than that i think my frogspawn has been a great starter LPS. I never feed it tho, never even seen it put out feeders... Heard this from a few ppl now...

 

[dallasg]

never had an issue with them, if the LFS brings them in from good supplier and looks after them then all is good.
Remember this is a list of all corals i have and recommend, there might be others, infact alot of others but these have all flourished in my tanks.

if the coral is getting good light and food via the water column then i would assume it wouldnt need to feed at night, but i have seen my frogspawn send out a 10cm feeler and decimate my pagoda coral.

well bubble corals are closer to anemones then corals and can be quite aggressive, i feed mine a piece of lance fish weekly

 

[colbar]

Thanks Dallas that is a wonderful thread, which I am sure will be of great help to the newbies. Thanks for taking the time and effort.

 

[COMMANDO]

Thank you for this read, I am getting lots of info from these newbie threads!

 

[Ares]

Thanks for the read.

I have a question though, might be silly.

While going through your list of corals, I did some research on the ones I liked and that I wanted to add into my setup when I got the building done and what not.

Firstly when it is mentioned that a coral is aggressive or semi-aggressive does this relate to the coral being aggressive towards the live stock such as fish or rather the coral that are its neighbours ?

Secondly while doing research I have read that some of the above mentioned corals have tenticals that could 'sting' you. My question is what affect would these stings have on one's body say that I got stung on my hand or arm? Is it deadly or rather just a rash ?

I am used to tropical systems ( been doing that for 10 yrs, though a reef tank has been my dream) and the concept of livestock that can 'poison' or 'hurt' me is still very new to me.

Thanks for your patience with the newbies like myself , it is much appreciated.

 

[dallasg]

Thanks for the read.

I have a question though, might be silly.

While going through your list of corals, I did some research on the ones I liked and that I wanted to add into my setup when I got the building done and what not.

Firstly when it is mentioned that a coral is aggressive or semi-aggressive does this relate to the coral being aggressive towards the live stock such as fish or rather the coral that are its neighbours ?

Secondly while doing research I have read that some of the above mentioned corals have tenticals that could 'sting' you. My question is what affect would these stings have on one's body say that I got stung on my hand or arm? Is it deadly or rather just a rash ?

I am used to tropical systems ( been doing that for 10 yrs, though a reef tank has been my dream) and the concept of livestock that can 'poison' or 'hurt' me is still very new to me.

Thanks for your patience with the newbies like myself , it is much appreciated.

glad you liked it

aggressiveness is related to its neighbours

its light, worst case a rash, but never had anything done to me

with care there is nothing to worry about, washing hands after and using items for reefing only will lead to healthy living

ask away

 

[Ares]

Thanks .
Does this include the anemones as well ? ( in regards to being 'stung')

 

[dallasg]

as far as i know there are no harmfull effects from stings from anemones we find in the trade here, except the night anemone which is very rare.

but always good err on the side of caution, dischem sells powder free latex gloves for like R50 for 100

 

[Dlaria]

I'm more afraid of the bacterial infections you can get from putting hands in tanks. I use a turkey baster to target feed my little brain.

 

[belindamotion]

Thx dallas - excellent thread. I have a frogspawn and hammer which are thriving, and took out a torch which grew too fast! They never got food except the odd reefsnow every other week. Placement counts - just enough light and flow. Too much flow and the tentacles if i can call it that rub on the hard skeleton, so just keep an eye on that and it should be pretty hard to kill a LPS

My Torch is growing like a weed also..had 4 heads and something like 3months later, I'm sitting with 12 heads... I never target feed...actually didn't know that that would be one of the "requirements"..I was suggested the odd measured cap of InvertFood..(that's the closest I get to "target feed"..)..so the Torch gets that maybe once a week...didn't know it wasn't beginners....although I did ask for the "easiest" and was then shown the Torch as I was adamant about reading that the Frogspawn and Hammer required a bit more than a Beginner...If memory serves me right, I was also told by my LFS, that day, that some..either Frogspawn or Hammer...sorry can't recall which one...think it might be Frogspawn..had different "types" or "colour"..with the result that some where a bit harder to keep than others...? If so, could you Post some info regarding that on this Thread...so that a Noob would know which one to buy...

thanks dallas great thread. I'd suggest a caution with the bubbles, fox and euphylias in general that they often ship poorly. Extra care must be taken not to damage their fleshy polyps against their own skeleton. Other than that i think my frogspawn has been a great starter LPS. I never feed it tho, never even seen it put out feeders... Heard this from a few ppl now...

Does a Torch also give out Feeders..? Never seen it..

 

[Mc]

Does a Torch also give out Feeders..? Never seen it..

I know mine does its quite hard to see but if you look at the right angle you can see it, specially when feeding.

 

[dallasg]

@belindamotion great news ur corals are growing, torch, hammers and froggies are great corals and require little additional maintenace, other than good params and light.

Most LPS have feeder tenticles extended at night, some have more bark than bite.

I will update this thread in detail in the next few days