Your First Hard Corals: LPS Hard Corals

[Keanan]

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

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

I know a magnifica anemone's sting burns and itches, just cant remember what comes first.

 

[zak]

My Torch is growing like a weed also..had 4 heads and something like 3months later, I'm sitting with 12 heads...

Wow, thats cool.. How about some pics. My torch has 3.5 heads Thing is, the rock they,re attached to has no room for any more heads, so now what?

<p><a href='http://www.marineaquariumsa.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=44969' target='_blank'><img src='http://www.marineaquariumsa.com/imagehosting/44994e96bcc3df214.jpg' border='0'></a></p>

 

[belindamotion]

Wow, thats cool.. How about some pics. My torch has 3.5 heads Thing is, the rock they,re attached to has no room for any more heads, so now what

I've got the same problem..running out of space..can't place it any where else as I don't have space..took this pic the other day to show my Cyano...

This is now...

...and this was when I got it...

 

[zak]

Looking good What lighting?

 

[belindamotion]

Looking good What lighting?

The standard Boyu TL 450..think it's 2 x 18 watt

 

[dallasg]

very cool, you do know there is a simple light mod for the unit

 

[belindamotion]

very cool, you do know there is a simple light mod for the unit

I'm all ears...unless I have to remove my Hood..

 

[dallasg]

the short is, you have to take it off and mod it
but without hijacking my own thread, you can pm me or search masa for 450 light mod or pm me

 

[2balive]

Is there a simple/sure way to distinguish between a Candy Cane and Trumpet Coral?

I always have been hesitant to add a bubble to my nano because of warnings about their sweeping tentacles reach, is this over emhesised or are they really that bad? I keep frogs, hammers and soon a torch and seam to be able to keep them from sending out sweepers.

 

[dallasg]

candy cane is more pink and has more flesh, the trumpet coral is normally a brilliant green and very thin in the actual fleshy part. both are from the same family, also the trumpet coral and a more defined trumpet shape where the candy tends to be more flat and radial


candy cane - Caulastrea furcata

trumpet coral - Caulastrea curvata

 

[2balive]

mmm, mine is neither color, thought it was furcata when I bought it, will try to get a picture.

 

[dallasg]

cool, then we can identify it

 

[2balive]

A bit late, here it is...

Looks like very drab Caulastrea furcata?

 

[belindamotion]

Shows how little I know...for me it looks like Caulastrea Curvata..wow difficult to tell apart when they are so small...for me anyway...?
Caulastrea curvata
Caulastrea furcata

I found this...same colour, but at this stage, that's about the only thing...

Faviidae

 

[2balive]

Glad to see it is not just me struggling to ID them

 

[2balive]

cool, then we can identify it

@dallasg any views?

 

[Eta Lyons]

Hard Corals

Hi,
I am a new tank owner and learning fast. Please enlighten me - what do aggressive corals do? What do I need to watch for? Besides those with tentacles, I thought thye pretty much sat there. Am I wrong?

Thanks,

Eta Lyons

 

[Dlaria]

They do chemical warfare.

 

[seank]

@Eta Lyons

what do aggressive corals do?

They either:
1.) Fight a chemical warfare with other corals of a different family/genus/specie
2.) Some grows faster and tend to "smother" others growing slower
3.) Some uses up more nutrients and "starve" the lesser coral
4.) And the you get aggressive as in they jump out of the tank and strangle you

Besides those with tentacles, I thought thye pretty much sat there

Nope, a coral is a living organism, you should really see a tank fully stocked and matured at night to appreciate the biology behind corals. They fight each other to survive- as noted above-, they eat, they grow old, they look beautiful, they spawn, they split to become more than one, some of them move too etc etc etc

Am I wrong?

As posted above

 

[seank]

@Eta Lyons

Every coral, from small free-living individuals to huge colonies, has the same basic body plan:

• Coral polyp – the living animal, basically a sack with a stomach and a mouth surrounded by retractable, stinging tentacles. These tentacles are used to catch food.
• Corallite - a hard calcium carbonate shell that protects the polyp

Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps".
The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.

A coral "head" is a colony of myriad genetically identical polyps.
Each polyp is a spineless animal typically only a few millimeters in diameter and a few centimeters in length. A set of tentacles surround a central mouth opening.

An exoskeleton is excreted near the base. Over many generations, the colony thus creates a large skeleton that is characteristic of the species. Individual heads grow by asexual reproduction of polyps.

Corals also breed sexually by spawning: polyps of the same species release gametes simultaneously over a period of one to several nights around a full moon.

Microdocs: What is a Coral


[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral"]Coral - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]