Jump to content
Innovative Marine Aquariums

Edited: Starlet coral care?


Tired

Recommended Posts

image0.jpg?width=473&height=630

I spotted this guy when I bought this rock. It's Caribbean rock, and has lots of nice Caribbean life on it, but I figured this was dead due to all the coraline over it. It was exposed like this, briefly, but it's been pretty much constantly covered since late September.

 

Except today, I repositioned the rocks, and this wound up in a bit of light and flow. And I noticed it had a puffy texture to a spot of it. I touched the puffiness with my pipette, and it retreated. 

Turns out, this stuff's alive. 

image0.jpg?width=473&height=630

That puffy brown section is the live bit. It looks like four full polyps embedded in the skeleton, and a tiny new bit sprouting out.

 

So, what is it, and what do I do for it? Also, how aggressive is it? It's in a very inconvenient place, underneath a rock that's covered all over the top with lots of great macroalgae. I think I may chisel that whole skeleton off the rock so I can place it somewhere else. 

Do I need to do anything to help it recover, or will light, flow, and maybe a bit of food be enough? I'm assuming it can grow over the coraline and make a new skeleton just fine.

Edit: it's a starlet or lesser starlet, I think. Care on this one? 

Link to comment
Lovemyreef2015

Not sure what it is at this point. Looks similar to either favites or a favia coral or even what you mentioned. I would get it off the rock and acclimate it to light. It would be better if you could just turn the rock over but either way the coral will need light. I would start with low to medium flow and see how it does for awhile. Cool coral hitchhiker! 

Link to comment

It looks like favia, yes, but I don't think those are known to come in all that often on live rock. Starlet coral is apparently a pretty common find. 

 

I have to find my brother's chisel to get it off there. It's exposed to a little bit of light now, and these apparently don't need much light in the first place, so I think it'll be okay here for now. It's gotten even puffier since I took the photo, so I think it likes being there. Sorry I put you underneath this rock for a couple of months, coral. 

Link to comment
  • 1 year later...

Anyone know anything about these? It's colored up (as much as they do), but doesn't really seem to be growing. I found another, tiny, single-polyp frag of the stuff on another bit of rock awhile ago, so that's in the light too, and isn't growing either. I've tried feeding them, but they don't seem to respond, even to reef roids. 

Link to comment
Nano sapiens

Based on the number of septa (30-40) that I can see in the corallites, it's a Lesser Starlet Coral (Siderastrea radians) which typically forms small colonies of only a few inches across. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siderastrea_radians

 

 

The Starlet Coral (Siderastrea siderea) has 50-60 septa/corallite and is much more massive (up to over 6 feet across).

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siderastrea_siderea

 

 

Siderastrea radians has the reputation for being about as tough as a coral can get.  Survives being buried for days (bleaches easily, but recovers quickly), can live in a wide range of temperatures (55 - 88 °F), depths and salinities.

Link to comment

Oh, good, it's the small kind. I definitely don't have room for a 6-foot coral colony. Very useful to know, thank you.

 

Wow, wild entry in that article: "Occasionally it occurs as small calcareous pebbles that roll around in seagrass meadows or as loose flat discs in shallow rocky places". I doubt that they turn into tumbleweeds on purpose, but the phrasing implies that you can find live starlets doing this. 

 

I went and had a look, and I now have 7 polyps on this coral, instead of 5, so it is growing somewhat. No idea how long it's been in conditions that SPS like. I have an encrusting monti that's been growing for a couple months- is it safe to assume that conditions suitable for encrusting montis (and a couple LPS, and zoas) to grow in, would also be good for starlets to grow in? I'm just glad to see it's growing at all, I was a bit worried the old skeleton might get in its way. 

 

Is it worth trying to feed this guy at night? Its polyps seem fully extended during the day, and I think I can see tentacles (hard to tell, the flesh is slightly transparent), but it doesn't fold or anything if I put reef roids on it.

 

I was going to take a picture, but my decorator crab is standing on it, so it's retracted. I'll try later. 

Link to comment

Cool find.  Sounds like it's growing somewhat but really these encrusting LPS grow really slow.  At least similar species that I've kept do. I'm thinking chiseling it off and making a new home for it would certainly encourage it to grow more and take advantage of more photosynthetic zooxanthellae. That is if you haven't already. 

 

 

Link to comment

Oh, yeah, I moved it as soon as I realized it was alive. I put the rock at a better angle for it to get light first, then chiseled the whole skeleton off. I'd be much less surprised at its growth rate if it was still under a rock! 

 

Tank lights are winding down for the night and are apparently at a terrible shade to photograph, but here it is. Don't mind the glass needing a scrub. Or the new zoas willy-nilly on the sandbed, I'm still deciding on placement. 

image0.jpg?width=472&height=630

image1.jpg?width=840&height=630

It's down there in the bottom right, up close to the glass. I've moved it around a few times and seen no particular difference in any location, but I read that they prefer lower light, so it's over there now. Partly because the hermits can't stand on it as easily as before. They kept flipping it over. Scarlet reef hermits- peaceful, but they like to flip things. 

 

There's enough light in that corner to grow coraline, but I might move the starlet to slightly brighter lighting. Any idea how to tell if it has enough light? It doesn't seem to stretch or anything. 

Link to comment

Haha no judgement here...  I've neglected my tank for the better part of a year so I spent all day last Saturday doing a super deep clean.  I'm running a FOWLR.

 

IME the "rule" with coral is generally more light = better growth and coloration in almost all cases (with appropriate water parameters).  "Low" and "Medium" light corals can do really well in high light setups, with nice compact and bright growth.  I think the key is to gradually acclimate to higher light though.  I mean there is such a thing as too much lighting but I don't think most of us have that problem. 

 

 

 

Link to comment

I'll probably try and move this guy around a bit, see if I can find another spot where it fits. I suppose I don't mind if it grows slowly for now, though I'd like it to get a bit larger so I have some 'extra' in case something stings a few polyps away. I'm also curious how it'll grow- will it create new skeleton on top of the old, or can it somehow grow into the old skeleton? Some of the wild pictures of these seem to have the coral skeleton embedded in the rock, instead of grown on top of it. The new polyps on this don't seem to be built on top of the old skeleton, but they're definitely new- those portions of it were solidly covered in algae before.

 

I'm currently increasing my lighting a bit, for the tank in general. Once I'm done with that, I'll move the starlet. 

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...