Hard to Keep Coral Tips

[reeferpuffer]

Hard to keep coral tips


***WARNING: THESE CORALS SHOULD ONLY BE ATTEMPED BY EXPERTS! MOST CORALS LISTED HERE WILL NOT SURVIVE IN A REGULAR AQUARIUM. THESE WILL NEED VERY ASTABLISHED TANKS, AND EXTREME CARE!***



Goniopora
I have seen many people struggle with keeping flower pot corals. Here are some tips for keeping them alive:
While there are 7 species of goniopora for sale, some are harder to keep than others. Goniopora with a branching growth prove to do better than those with a rounder shape. Often times, people will put a power head right up to the coral. DONT do this, as it likes softer current, just enough to sway back and forth.
Flower pots actually dont need extremely stong amounts of lighting (Altought it is perfered). PC's will even sometimes work for these guys, if you have strong amounts of it (6wts+ per gallon of PC's or stronger(DONT USE NO OUTPUT LIGHTS!!!)), and if the water is outstandin with the parimeters.
If you have one, and are adding any sort of plankton, let me tell you something about that: The Goniopora is not consuming the plankton you add, but the other forms of life are (Tube worms, sponges, rock biring clams, etc) which produce larve that the coral eats.
Make sure that you do tons of reading, make sure your tank is mature, and have very stonge amounts of lighting before you add one of these.
Good luck!

Anemones
To keep anemones, there are two things that you have to do: First, the care taker must read and understand the needs. Second, the care taker must meet their needs. Anemones actually dont need bright lighting to live long, but they need to be fed quiet often. The most important conditions for an anemone is Tempature, Salinity, and substrate.
Some anemones, like the Long tentacle anemone (Macrodactyla Doreensis) like to be on rocks. And other, like a carpet (Stichondactyla Haddoni) like to burry their "foot" in the sand.
The average tempature for an anemone would be 82 degrees F. Food is also very important when keeping anemones.
It is important to feed foods similer to what they would eat in thw wild. The Zooxanthellea only provides the anemone with "sugery" foods or junk foods. They need proper foods to keep them going as energy. Large krill the size of cocktail shrimp are perfect foods for anemones, just like silver sides, diced fish, whole shrimp, clams and squid. It is important to the the trial-and-error testing when feeding.
If the anemone is interested in the food, it will close up, and consume the foods. If it isnt, the food will either drift away with the current, or the anemone will push it off with its tentacles.
Often anemones move. This is a bad sign, becuase this means his require ments werent matched. It could be something simple, like a bit too much current to the left, or it could be the lighting or the tank. The anemone will keeping moving till it dies, and maybe killing or stinging other corals when it moves. And if you try and help, it wll most likly die of stress. So it is important to where your species of anemone lives.
The thumb rule for anemones is one per tank(for 150 and below). Anemones can tell if another anemone is within 5 feet of him. So, the anemone will go attack. The attacks are slow, but proven fatel. Most likely, both anemones will die. So, just make it easy and but one. If your anemone got all of its needs, it might split. Now you have 2 anemones. But dont worry. The clone an the original will not attack, as it is the same anemone.
Every so often, the anemones will deflate for a couple of days. You might see its mouth open with purple or bown slim coming out, this is the material that the anemone has not consumed, it is the junk. This will last about 1-2 days. When it does this, that means that it had some waisted foods. If you feed your anemone properly, you should not incounter this at all.
Alot of times people ask if there anemone is dying. The first sign of stress, it in their foot. It will seems like it has wounds on his foot. The second sign is shrivng up, for more than 4 days. Then, it will slowely fade away. Make sure to take it out after 4-5 days when you notice its dying.
Alot of people want anemones. A way to tell f your ready is "If you cant answer your own question, your not ready". Once you can answer your questions, you are ready for one. So make sure you read, read, read.

****The above came from Aquarium Fish Magazine....October 2002 issue. The goniopora info is mostly from the column Reef Aquarist by Charles Delbeek and the anemone info is mostly from the article Host Anemones by Dr. Shimek(Topic highy debatible on the feeding anemones issue/zooanthellae)****

Tubestra coral polyps(A.K.A. Sun Polyps)
These areny very easy corals to keep. These, unlike most corals, dont use the Zooxanthellea. Next, these will need a very established tank, with lots of zooplankton(Animal Plankton) and phytoplankton(Plant Plankton). These do need to be fed on a regular basis, the more the better. This will usually happen at night, when they are open. Most people use a Turkey Baster, and blast the coral heavely with live plankton(such as DT's phytoplankton) and dead planktons (Such as Marine snow, which has some zooplankton).This method isnt recomended though. I find using a "feeding cap" These are easy to make, and will only take about 10 minutes, by taking a 2L coke bottle, and cutting it in half. Then, take a large nail, and poke a hole in the top. Next, keep the cap. 2x daily, put the bottle over the coral, with the cap off, and blast the coral with as much plankton as posible, then put the cap on as tightly as you can, and leave it for an hour or so. Try doing this at night, when its tentacles are fully extended. Next, these will need good water conditions, such as Nitrite, Nitrate, Ammonia, pH, Calcium Copper, Phosphate, calcium, etc. Last, these will need mediumg currents, not like rapids, but alittle less than that.

Gorgonian (NON photosynthic!!!!!)
These are very wonderful corals to have, but these do often have problems:
Gorgonians, again, dont use the Zooxanthellea in their tissues(Very few do, so make sure you know before you buy!). The Gorgonians like to be in dark places, with lots of current. These will have some algeas grow on them, no matter where they are, so, they need very hard current to "push" the algea off. They will do regular shedding, to get rid of the algea they is still holding on, and this will just fall into the aquarium, and slowly fad away. There is no need to take it out, as this will not cuase any ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, etc.
For the most part, gorgonions arent that hardy. They should be sprayed 2 times a week with phytoplankton, and zooplankton. Unlike the sun polyps, these will most likly be open during the day, so you can feed any time you want to, in the day. It is much better if you feed the coral at the same time very week. It will ajust to this time, and will sloly open up even more, later on.
Gorgonians are very easy to frag(Click http://www.reefcentral.com/library/cora ... efault.htm for the site) and most of the time, all frags will live. Gorgonians need good water conditions, like Nitrate, Nitrite, etc. Most gorgonians arent that east to keep, but the easiest gorgonian to keep, would be a "sea whip" These are much much more hardy, and much easier to frag.

Giant Clams
Now, these are not corals. They are invertibrates(That means they have no back bone). Giant clams need alo of care, so this will likely help you:
Clams need HIGH amounts of lighting, since they will mostly live off the Zooanthellae and the planktons. I wouldnt recommend to buy clams if you dont have Metal Halide lighting! Next, clams will need plankton. They will filter through the water, and pick up plankton. It is esstimated that a clam can filter 300 US gallons every 2 hours, so make sure you have lots of plankton!
These dont need too much current, but just enough is good. You dont want rapids, you want gentel currents.
These again, will need outstanding water! They will need the best of the best water conditions. Nitrate should be around 5ppm-20ppm, nitrite should be 0ppm, ammonia should be 0ppm, pH should be 8.2, Calcium should be 450ppm, tempature should be 78-80 degrees F. Salinity should be 1.023-1.026, and all the other parimeters should be in range.
One of the most important things about the clam, is placement. They perfer to be burried about 1/4 in the sand. This will help them open and close most easily, rather than in the rocks.
Make sure clams are not kept with any fish or invert that might bother it, such as some blennys, some conches, and most butterfly fish.
The next thing, when buying a clam, is how it looks. Good clams should close up when you moive you hand over the light. They should be very aware.

Sponges
Most reefkeppers have thier Sponge die, and they are easy things to keep. For the first part, these are not corals. They are inverts, which use their Microscopic pours in the tissue for filter feeding. It is important when buying your sponge, to watch it for a week, and see what happends. Most of the time, the sponge will have some sort of contact with the air, and air will kill it. It will clog its pours, making it imporible to filter feed. Once you are done watching it, see what color it is. It should be any other color besides white, or brown. These usually mean that the tissue has died.
When moving your sponge into the tank, make sure it DOESNT touch any air, as this will kill it!
When you put it in the tank, put it in a dark spot, with lots of current. Algea will grow on the sponge, again, clogging the pours in it, cuaing the tissue to die. Current will help with this quite a bit.
Make sure you have some plankton in the water, such as zooplankton, phytoplankton, etc.
Sponges require a temp between 76 and 83 degrees F, a salinity of 1.023-1.028, nitrate-5-40ppm, nitrite at 0ppm, ammonia at 0ppm, calicum at 400-450ppm, pH of 8.2-8.4, etc

Cauliflower Coral

The First thing to know about this coral, is that it doesn't use the zooanthellae in its tissues, therefor, it needs no light. These mainly feed some floating planktons, such as zoo plankton, and phytoplankton, which means you should have a lot of plankton in your tank. Regular "target" feedings with a turkey baster are needed*just suck up some plankton in a turkey baster, and squirt it at the coral slowly). These corals will need dark, to medium lit areas, and prefer a slight current. I have never seen anyone successfully keep this coral for over a year, and they are not hardy at all. I would NOT recommend this coral to anyone, beginner, or expert, they will usually die.
"Why do they sell them if they will die?" The reason is, because they are fast growers. It is estimated that a cauliflower coral can grow over 30 inches, about every couple of months, so, they pick them and will sell them. Again, this coral isn't for anyone! they will most likely die. Even you have the most established tank, it will likely die within a few days or weeks.


SPS corals (Small Polyp Scleractinian [Stoney])

These corals are sadly the goal of most aquarist's today, when there are many more corals on the market these days. These corals will need vigorous amounts of current, good calcium levels, and very high lighting. These corals, arent as hard to keep as most corals I listed above, but they still will need extra care, that a "newbie" might not know of. First of all, you will hear these called "SPS" corals. SPS means Small Polyp Scleractinian, or stoney coral. These, will need hard amounts of currents, and calcium levels above 450ppm, since their skeletons are calcium based. These will also need very high amounts of lighting, perferably Metal Halide Lighting. Only very few species are known for surviving and thriving for long periods of time, under Florecent lighting, such as PC's, VHO's, etc. I, would never try to keep these under florecent lighting, as they will do much better with Metal Halide's. If you are very serious in going into a full/half tank with these corals, I would buy Metal Halide lighting, no questions asked. These should also be kept in very good water quality (IE: Nitrate 30ppm or lower, pH- 8.2, Ammonia- 0ppm, Nitrite-0ppm, Calcium- 450ppm or higher, Temp- between 77 and 82 degrees F., etc). One mistake, that most people make, would be to keep these corals next to, or close to Soft corals. Stoneys are not exelent fighters, and a softy can easily kill off one of these beautiful SPS corals in a matter of hours or days. I would highly recommend to keep softies at least 5-9 inches away from these corals. Any closer might be fine (4-5 in) but, the sofites "hands" can swing forward, attacking one of these corals, usually known as Chemical warfare. These should be aclamated carefully, preferably over 2 hours. Best if you had a Calcium reactor to ensure that calcium levels stay up.