MatthewDVM's Fluval Edge - Happy Birth-tank-day

[CronicReefer]

How do you get your duncan to have such long tentacles like that? Mine has grown like 5-6 new heads but its tentacles are short and fat but it seems like everyone else on here has a duncan coral with long flowing tentacles.

[Matthewdvm]

How do you get your duncan to have such long tentacles like that? Mine has grown like 5-6 new heads but its tentacles are short and fat but it seems like everyone else on here has a duncan coral with long flowing tentacles.

No idea why Duncan is so tentacular. He is in a medium flow area of the tank, and I feed him every few days with a pellet food (I pellet in each head). He had nice tentacles when I bought him, but they have definitely gotten longer and fuller since I' e had him. Funny thing is I keep looking at him to try to determine if he has any new heads growing, because he looks so fat and happy. But so far, he's just the two headed rockstar he was she I got him. I really can't even begin to guess how or where a new head will grow! But there you have it, I guess we always want what he don't have...

[Matthewdvm]

Being a relative noob to this whole reef world, I'm not sure what is normal and abnormal, but here's my question/concern. I have some Zoas and Palys that are very happy, open and swaying in the current all the time, and others that seem to spend most of the time curled up in hiding. Some of the curled up ones are right next to happy ones. I tried a little 5 minute dunk in RO water to see if that would knock any pests off, and tried putting them in new locations, but they still remain tucked in. Any thoughts? Should I worry about this, or is this just what they do sometimes?

Here's an example (my Green People Eaters, I believe):


(when happy and open, they look like this):


And another:


(this is the second example when open):


And yet, others are perfectly happy looking:

[Slowtwitch]

From what I understand about zoas, sometimes they just do that. I had a colony that did that for several days then just opened back up like nothing was ever wrong. Also had one do that and then found a few nudi's on it. Look closely for the pests. If you don't see anything, leave it alone and give them a little time.

[Matthewdvm]

Thanks, Slowtwitch.

 

For fun, since I haven't added anything new, I thought I'd take some new pictures of the existing corals.

 

I think Duncan might be pregnant! Anyone want to confirm if these are new heads starting?

 

 

Salvador the Ricordea is is looking pretty sweet:

 

And I like to red-green combo of these two next to each other...

[Wander]

Love the Ricordea. I have had mixed results with Yumas over the years. Looking good.

[Slowtwitch]

Looks like babies to me.

[Matthewdvm]

Looks like babies to me.

I'm going to be a coral daddy

Love the Ricordea. I have had mixed results with Yumas over the years. Looking good.

Thanks Wander! I'm really liking all the mushrooms right now. So so on the Zoas/Palys. Love the SPS, too.

[Matthewdvm]

Ric Rollin' tonight. Had to take a few pictures of the Ricordea

 

Top down:

 

From the side:

 

Feed me, Seymore... (I think this Ric just got named Audrey)

[Matthewdvm]

And a look at 6 weeks growth of my favourite bird's nest

 

January 13

 

February 27

[Matthewdvm]

Got some new 'shrooms yesterday! Also added 2 more Cerith Snails, 2 Throchus and 1 Nassarius.

 

I picked up a Grape Mania Yuma:

 

(The Grape Mania next to one of my Rics)

 

 

Another Yuma that I'm not sure the name of (any ideas?):

 

And a Blue Lagoon Discosoma:

 

 

 

 

Oh, and this is how open one of those pesky not wanting to open Zoas got yesterday.

 

 

Better than nothing, but not too exciting...

[Sk8n Reefer]

Nice - got a Birdsnest yourself - it's looking good ! How's your red - looks like Digitata doing ? Tanks doing really good- just read through your thread ?

[Matthewdvm]

Nice - got a Birdsnest yourself - it's looking good ! How's your red - looks like Digitata doing ? Tanks doing really good- just read through your thread ?

 

Thanks, Sk8n! I quite like the bird's nest. Getting a little growth on it. Just pick up some Acro Power, so I hope to see more growth with regular feeding. The Red Digitata is doing well. Sort of a boring brown colour under full lighting, but when it is just actinic, it really has some pop. I see a little growth in it (not too obvious in the below comparison, but there is a bit):

When I first got it:

 

and within the last week:

[Matthewdvm]

But it looks like my Hammer is unhappy. It has slowly receded back into its stem. Any thoughts or suggestions? He is glued on, but I can move him if needed...

 

 

Here he was in his glory day...

[Slowtwitch]

Not my area of expertise, but looking at that picture it looks like pretty heavy flow there? Maybe too much?

[Matthewdvm]

I see what you mean from looking at the picture, but I had just stirred some sand up by mistake, and it was a slow exposure. It is actually a pretty low flow area (near my Mushroom Farm, as far away from the power head as you can get, and blocked by some LR. When I first got it, it was in higher flow, and seemed pretty happy. Maybe it is now too low flow? Is that possible for a hammer?

[Slowtwitch]

Not sure how these particular coral respond to flow rates. Maybe check in with the Euphillia club on here. I know that they like to put frogspawn and torches in fairly high flow.

[Matthewdvm]

Hmmm. I moved him to his current location because I had read about how high flow could damage it. Maybe it needs just a bit high flow. When I have time, I'll check in with the euphillia club.

[Sk8n Reefer]

Must be a flow or lighting issue- with your sps growing your water parameters must be good ?

[CronicReefer]

My frogpsawn and hammer both enjoy lower flows but my frogspawn is more tolerable of a stronger current. It could possibly need more light though as both my frogpsawn and hammer enjoy strong light intensity.

[Matthewdvm]

I've moved the light over a bit so the hammer is getting a bit more light. We'll see if that does anything. If not, I'll lift him up a bit so he is in more flow.

[Matthewdvm]

Weekend Photo Update:

 

First, the unhappy zoas are making some progress (or at least one of them is). Here's the Milky Way Zoa 2 days ago. I've been feeding them a combination of Marine Snow daily and a powdered micro reef food a couple of times a week. The progress is subtle and slow, but at least more than one head is starting to open again:

 

 

And even slightly more open yesterday:

 

 

And a picture of Duncan's baby heads growing:

 

 

I Moved the Tubb's Blue last week so he is now hanging out between the Duncan and the Sunny D Yuma:

 

My Acan seems super HAPPY. It was a 4 head Acan when I bought it a month or so ago, now it has heads crowding all around the base. Not sure where it will go from here. Should it be on a rock instead of the sand so it can grow out across the rock? Not really sure what these guys like:

 

My Arctic Ice Palys combined with unknown Palys:

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[Slowtwitch]

Hey Doc,

In those zoa pics it looks like you've got a amphipod crawling on it. That could be what it making them want to stay closed. They are known to irritate/eat softies like zoas.

[Matthewdvm]

Yes, there are definitely little critters on them. But they are throughout the tank. Suggestions on how to deal with them?

[Slowtwitch]

Get a fish that likes to eat them.

 

I had an exploding population of pods in my tank along with an outbreak of GHA. Picked up a pair of Mollies to take care of the algae thinking I could put them in my son's freshwater tank when they were done cleaning things up. They obliterated the pods in about 2 days as well.