Now, I know a few people asked on other boards, “what should I feed my SPS?” Lets first say that SPS will not consume phytoplankton. Phytoplankton will only benefit the coral indirectly. How? Phytoplankton will stimulate the growth of many invertebrates, including bivalves, rock boring clams, sponges, tunicates, etc., causing them to spawn. Their offspring will be food to your SPS. Acropora are great feeders and will benefit from regular feedings. Acropora is able to receive 100% of their carbon needs from lighting. If the Acropora came from a deep area, it will most likely not make its own carbon and will have to acquire it from feedings. Acropora can also get nitrogen without feeding. So, the questions is, what do I feed them? I’ve found that Golden pearls will work well, as well as with any liquefied foods. SPS usually feed on organisms that are too small for the naked eye to see. Such foods would include copepod larvae. Cyclope-Eeze may also be used, although most SPS will not be able to consume such large food items.
Now, the problems that we encounter while keeping SPS can often be extremely discouraging. Some of these problems will include disease, the overall cost of the tank, and the fact that once you turn to the dark side there is no turning back. I’ll now discuss diseases of small polyped scleractinians. Some diseases include:
BBD - Black Band Disease
WBD - White Band Disease
YBD - Yellow Band Disease
BBD - Brown Band Disease
RBD - Red Band Disease
YLD - Yellow Line Disease
RWD - Rapid Wasting Disease
WP - White Plague
WP Type II - White Plague Type 2
White Pox
Yellow Blotch Disease
Patchy Necrosis
Stress Related Necrosis
Shut Down Reaction
Aspergillosis
The most common includes Rapid tissue necrosis (which is referred to as the term “RTN”). Outside our hobby, there is no such thing the term “RTN.” Rapid tissue necrosis is now classified as a viral infection, as if it were bacterial, the disease could be stopped with anti-biotics (which doesn’t at all affect it). As with any disease (or illness), we tend to think of it as “Cause-Disease-Cure.” This is not always the case. Rapid tissue necrosis is often observed as the corals tissue is falling off the coral, often in sheets. Acropora and Pocillopora seem to be most effected by this disease. What’s the cure? Unfortunately there is no guaranteed cure. Most of the time, you will have to break off the area infected with RTN and hope that the main coral doesn’t get RTN again. Always remember to discard the infected coral, to ensure that the disease does not travel to any other corals. Now, what causes RTN? Usually environmental factors cause RTN, which includes poor water quality, improper temperature and so on. Sometimes a coral may appear to be doing fine for years and then one day decides to get rapid tissue necrosis and within a day the whole coral is lost. RTN can completely kill a coral in a matter of hours. I’ve once lost a very nice purple with green polyped table Acropora in less than 30 minutes due to RTN. I have also had some success with 2 out of 4 frags, with putting a super glue over the infected area of the coral. This may work, and this may end up in the coral getting RTN for a second time due to the first necrosis event. If you decide to use this method, do so with caution.
Another disease would include white band disease. In this case, the coral will often bleach from the base up at a few mm per day until the coral is completely gone. I’ve never had any success with curing WBB. I’ve fragged many of the corals and none of the fragments have survived, except for one A. millepora. I believe that I got this disease from a wholesaler in the LA area (don’t worry, not from the wholesaler that Dave goes to). I also believe that this disease is contages, as it started out on an A. gemmifera, it spread to an A. millepora, which spread to an A. Formosa, which spread to an A. nobilis, which spread to another A. millepora. All of the corals died, even after I’ve completely fragged them up. WBB type II is often the same thing as Type 1, although type II is known for spreading up the coral much quicker than type I.
Black band disease (BBD) is often observed as a black band separating the dead coral (white) from the living tissue. Often fragging the coral and discarding the infected pieces is the best “cure” for saving the corals.
I won’t discuss the other diseases, as most do not occur in our aquariums (notice I say most!). If you’re interested in these diseases, I recommend you consult some online information or books about SPS diseases.
I’ll now discuss the topic “Red Bugs.” Red bugs are a type of Amphipod which often live on the genus Acropora (although they don’t seem to be attracted to corals which produce a high amount of slime, including A. yongei). From my experience, red bugs are attracted to a variety of corals, and are not attracted to one single color or species of coral. Are these bugs parasitic? I have no clue. I have a total of 6 corals infected with the red bugs. They all show great growth and great coloration. I’ve also seen people with red bugs who have unhealthy corals with poor coloration and poor polyp extension. They claim that the corals went downhill after they’ve introduced red bugs. It could be possible that these bugs are feeding off of the slime produced by certain corals, and the bugs are not parasitic. I believe that in the wild, these bugs are spread out from colony to colony, and in our aquariums, they can reproduce easily and take over corals quicker, therefore possibly stressing the coral. There has been no proof (yet) that these amphipods are parasitic, nor has there been any proof that these bugs are beneficial to the coral. It’s best to judge for yourself weather you think these bugs are beneficial or not.
The next topic I will discuss is water quality. Water quality can be just as important as the lighting your corals are under. I would recommend an ammonia and nitrite level of 0ppm, a nitrate of below 10ppm, a pH of 8.1-8.3, a Salinity of 1.024-1.027, a phosphate of 0ppm (phosphate will impede the calcification process), an alkalinity of 9-13dKH, a calcium of 400-450ppm, and a magnesium of around 1400ppm. It’s important to monitor Alkalinity and calcium regularly, as all scleractinians are calcium carbonate based and use calcium to grow.
Acclamation is another topic which is greatly discussed. I’ve heard many method for acclamation, some include simply making the coral slime up and putting it directly in the aquarium without any special acclamation, and some including a 3 hour acclamation and iodine dip. I’ve tried both methods with success, although I’ve always liked to be on the safe side and do an Iodine dip (20-40 drops of iodine per gallon), which would kill off any harmful diseases or parasites that may have hitchhiked onto the coral. Doing an iodine dip will prevent these harmful parasites/diseases from spreading to the corals in the main tank. As far as acclamation comes, I’ve simply acclimated the majority of my corals by floating the bag in the sump for 20 minutes and dripping 3 drops per second, via IV tubing, into the bag containing the coral. After 30 minutes of dripping, I take out the coral and perform a quick 15 minute iodine dip, before the coral is put into the aquarium. Make sure you slowly acclimate the coral to your lighting, especially if the coral came from an area where it was under low amounts of lighting. You can put the coral at the bottom of the aquarium for a few days, and then slowly move the coral to its final location.
I will not discuss the growth rates of the corals, as the growth can greatly vary from tank to tank and from species to species. It would take too long to go through every species of corals and every tank setup explaining the growth. I also think it would be way to vague if I generalized the growth of each coral.
I would also like to note to stay away from wild caught corals. Wild Corals are much more susceptible to diseaeses, show slower growth and are difficult to aclamate to your aquarium. From my experience, over 90% of the wild colonies I bought have died within 8 months of the purchase. I would always stick with buying captive raised corals. Also keep in mind that even though a website may say "captive raised," it does not mean that the coral was rasied in an aquarium. Many of these "captive raised" corals are actually farmed out in the ocean and grown from frags. They're still just as difficult to keep as wild colonies, although they make less of an impact on our reefs.
Also (I've seen this around here a lot), when spelling a name, make sure you capitilize the first letter of the genus name and leave the species name without any caps. As an example: Acropora formosa, not Acropora Formosa, acropora Formosa, or acropora formosa.
To sum up everything, keeping SPS can be one of the most rewarding corals to keep. If you provide them with the proper conditions, they are able to show outragious colorations and growth rates!
References:
http://whelk.aims.gov.au/coralsearch/coralid_search.php
(only the names were used)
Also, thank you Chris (Skilos1) for giving me Improvements on my work!!
sps page 2 copied from swf.com
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