ricordea questions

[bugsy]

Hi, the otherday I was at our LFS and bought some "ricordea". They told me that it was a form of a non stinging anemone and it is completley safe for your tank and will spread quite rapidly.

 

Well, searching the internet and reading forums I am beginning to wonder if I have added something so pretty but so mean to my tank.

 

I have read they will eat my shrimp :*( I have one camel shrimp. Will it eat him?

 

He is of quite a size and the ricordea right now is the size of a dime.

 

The colors of pink and green are sure pretty and add some nice and much needed color to my tank. I am looking for things that are cheap here and easy to care for.

 

So far I have two green mushrooms although they are more red with a hint of green and one piece of ricordea.

 

Also will a tomato clown make ricordea a home once it gets bigger?

 

And lastley, is ricordea a type of "anemone or mushroom"?

 

Bugsy

[Simbo18]

Don't worry about your shirmp; he is way to big I'm sure and it can be a bit of a hassle to get them to eat anyway (let alone have them catch food on their own). The thing you should be worrying about is if you have enough light??..... they like tons of light and decent current. You can get by with PC's but you lose the color.

 

I have seen clowns make a host of just about everything BUT a ricodia..... so probablly not. My maroon clown pair have two fungia plates and two hairy shrooms as a host when they are surrounded by about 17 ricordia.... and so far I havn't seen them hosted in any of them.

 

Ricorida are slow growers and I don't care what anyone says.

 

Luke

[surfy]

Yeah they can be a pain to direct feed but I do it all the time. I have to turn off all the pumps so there is no water flow, that way I can lay a piece of food on each polyp. It usually takes a good 5-10min for them to take it.

 

If you direct feed them they will grow big and strong, fast too;)

 

Ricordia are in the anemone family but they are really more of a mushroom.

 

Get more 03 on the tank and they will color up more.

 

They are also one of my favorite corals by the way.

[MGXsport]

I believe they are mushrooms

[Simbo18]

They are in the same class as sea anemones, zoanthids, and corallimorpharians. They are in the class Anthozoa.

 

Surfy, they grow faster..... Not fast. LOL I know, I feed mine too......, it's qutie a job if they aren't trained to eat. You know?

 

Luke

[bugsy]

Thanks all, this is really neat to get all this info. I would like to ask. When I got mine from the LFS, they had a whole bunch of little ones at the top of the glass near the lights. Why would they be way up there?

 

Will they eat phyto at all? What about mushrooms (green & red) will they eat phyto?

 

I don't want to buy anymore aquarium stuff that I need to as alot of this stuff is a waist of money if it is not required.

 

Thanks again..........bugsy