New Coral

[dixaisy930]

I brought home three new coral frags today - sun coral, leather, and xenia. I debated about the sun coral, but obviously decided to get it. When this pics were taken, all three had been in the tank for a few hours. I'm a little concerned that the xenia is still clamped down as much as it is. What's an average time span of the xenia and leather opening up? I noticed the leather is touching the glass a little. Should I move it? Is that bad for the leather? Of course, they came along with some apista. Two of them are actually nice looking, maroon with white circles. Too bad it's such a menace. The peppermints have been picking on the rocks since I put them in there. I think one was going after one of the apista. Where the pep was picking at, these white, ultra thin strands were coming from the rock.

 

[sianeds]

That sun coral should be a beauty when it opens just so you know...mine eats loads, as much as I'm willing to feed it. The more I feed it the bigger it gets, I've been shocked how fast it's grown.

Your mushroom leather looks lovely. When it opens up get some pics

 

[Mr Miagi]

What's an average time span of the xenia and leather opening up?

Nice corals. I wouldn't say there were any "average" opening times, but id allow for definitely overnight, reaching into the next day or two, 2 hours is a little keen!

I noticed the leather is touching the glass a little. Should I move it? Is that bad for the leather?

The leather should probably be off the glass, just so it has good flow around the whole coral. But again I wouldnt worry too much if its only a small piece, but obviously the more flow around the coral the better.

 

[steelhealr]

The sun coral prefers shade. They are usually found on the underneath side of reef outcroppings. Under bright lights, they may not open for you during the day when they are truly beautiful. I had sun corals....man..what a pain the neck. You have to constantly feed them, but then again, that might be the fun part for you. They are rough to keep in a nano tank because they produce nitrates as they break down the food...made it tough to keep them in such low volumes of water. SH

PS..if you have trouble getting the sun to open, you can remove it....put in in a tupperware with your tank water....and add a ton of food and swirl the water around. SH

 

[SkiFletch]

Agree with Mr M, those corals should wake up within a day or two. Do be cautious that Xenia can sometimes be a "canary" for your tank, letting you know when chemistry is off. I know mine will close up like that when my salinity creeps too high or my alk creeps too low.

 

[dixaisy930]

The xenia is looking better this morning. It's pulsing a little - the polpys don't completely open all the way, but they aren't clamped down like last night.

I turned the lights off a little early to see if the sun would open up, and about half of the polpys did so I gave it some daphina. Is this too small for them? It was hard to tell if it was able to eat any of it. The polyps seem so small compared to other sun's I've seen. Lucky me though, this morning a few hours after I turned the lights back on, I have a couple of polyps open so I fed them daphina again. Should I be feeding it something like mysis, or squid?

I moved the leather off the glass. My yellow clown goby must assumes I bought it for her, since she has decided to make that her new perch. Hope this doesn't stress the new leather. A few polyps were opening.

 

[steelhealr]

If you spray them with some of the juice from the mysis, that can coax them to open. I would rotate feeding them mixtures of either enriche brine, mysis and Cyclopeeze. The LOVE squid, but, depending on your tank size, squid brings on nitrates...very high in protein. SH