Blue sympodium food and other questions.

[Tired]

Will these eat anything if I put it on them? Reef Roids, maybe? Mine isn't really growing. I know they're slow about it, but I was wondering if there's anything I can feed it to get it going, or just to keep it happy in general. 

 

In the food-adjacent category, what lighting do they seem to like? I keep reading varying things. More importantly, what do they do when they don't like the light? Will they be obvious about it and let me know they need to be moved? 

 

What are they like with other corals? I think these would look amazing alongside my black hole sun zoas, but I don't know if one of them would sting the other. 

[mcarroll]

I think they tend to be invasive, so I suspect they will keep their own agenda on most of this.  

 

I also think they over-grow rather than stinging, but I could be wrong.  I suspect they'd get along with other soft corals, but I'd keep em away from any tank with stony corals.

 

For best growth, keep nutrients and flow up, as usual.  

 

If you have any idea whether they are shallow water specialists (or not) then you might be able to tweak their light accordingly....otherwise I'd assume they're from the deep and prefer low levels of mostly-blue light like "most corals".

[Tired]

I've seen claims that they're invasive, but in a couple of those cases, the person posted a picture and it was actually blue clove polyps. I've also seen people saying their sympodium is pretty slow-growing. So I wonder if sympodium is usually more laid-back, but gets mixed up with clove polyps? They are pretty similar at first look. Heck, that's what I thought this was- some sort of weird, mat-forming clove polyp. Just found out what it was because I saw a picture online. 

[MrP]

It's not necessary to go out of your way to feed it but it will accept a variety of foods.

 

Moderate to high lighting along with higher flow is recommended. If the polyps are open, it's probably happy where it's at. 

 

It isn't considered an aggressive coral and should do well alongside other non aggressive corals. 

[sublunary]

I have mine in lower-ish lighting now (around 100 PAR if I remember right) and it's doing well.  I think they like dirtier water - I'm around 25 ppm nitrates and feed frequently.  The biggest growth explosion I got with them was when they were in my previous tank and I neglected it for several months - meaning there was a ton of GHA, few water changes, and occasional broadcast feeding of microvore, and not much else.

 

I've never target fed them, but have noticed them eating pellets that fall on them, so that can't hurt. 

 

 

[Tired]

I've started feeding mine reef roids about once or twice a week, and it seems to really like that. Its polyps are extended more, and I can see a slight bit of growth since I started. I just give it a tiny, tiny sprinkle of the stuff, directly on top of it while the flow is off, and it eats quick. I also cut down the bit of rock it was attached to and glued that to something, so the hermit crabs can't knock it over any more. This stuff really hates being disturbed. 

[Tired]

I have notable growth and increase in polyp size since I started feeding. The polyps are now almost 1/4" across, and the frag has about doubled in size. Granted, it was pretty small before. It's definitely not growing at a worrying rate, and I think it might be reasonably easy to peel off of smooth-ish surfaces anyway. I'll try to remember to get a picture after things have settled from the water change. 

 

My question is this: why isn't blue-green sympodium a more popular coral? It's pretty, it seems decently hardy, it's not invasive as far as I can tell. There aren't really any downsides. Is it just that it's newish and not in huge supply? Do people get it, keep it in low nutrients, and have it die?

[farkwar]

I bought a tank years back that had blue polyps in it

 

It was a pest

 

It's not the same as your blue sympodium

 

 

[Tired]

Yeah, blue clove/blue star polyps are incredibly invasive. They even sexually reproduce in home aquaria, which is cool, except that it lets them get everywhere even if you try to confine them. 

 

I wonder if people mistake sympodium for blue cloves, and don't buy it because they think it's something invasive. It's a great alternative to blue cloves, I'll say that. 

[banasophia]

2 hours ago, Tired said:

Yeah, blue clove/blue star polyps are incredibly invasive. They even sexually reproduce in home aquaria, which is cool, except that it lets them get everywhere even if you try to confine them. 

 

I wonder if people mistake sympodium for blue cloves, and don't buy it because they think it's something invasive. It's a great alternative to blue cloves, I'll say that. 

Agree, I think people mix up blue sympodium (the slow growing mat forming coral) with blue sansibia (the tiny blue snowflake cloves that spawn and spread throughout the tank), so I think a lot of people are reluctant to stock it. Also, my LFSs say sympodium is hard to get. My blue sympodium is not doing great, I think I’ll try the reef roids... appreciate your update on yours! Let’s see some pics! 🙏😊

[Tired]

I feed reef roids to my corals by adding just enough water to a pinch of food to make it a liquid that will go into the pipette. My acans get the first couple bits, then the sympodium is next, usually with slightly more diluted food. It doesn't like being disturbed, so I hold the pipette still, and the food settles out of the pipette onto the sympodium. It starts closing early, out of annoyance, if I blow the food at it. After a couple minutes, I gently blow the extra food away, because some almost always settles between the closed polyps. They close up really fast when I put the food on them, which is kinda gratifying. I don't use a lot of food, since the individual polyps are small and there isn't much mass to it. Just enough food that the majority of the polyps are closing on food, without a ton of it being between them.

Does anyone know if the speed at which a coral's polyps close means anything about how much food it needs? This one's polyps close up really fast when I put food on it, and I wonder if that's because it would naturally be catching food frequently, or if it's just because small polyps can close faster. 

 

This is a bad picture from... probably September? I had recently started feeding it now and then.

 

This is today. Don't mind the algae, a big snail died recently and I haven't had the energy to deal with the algae it caused. Aside from keeping corals clean. 

Not bad for three months of growth, considering how tiny it was to start with. I'm hoping it'll cover the whole end of this branching rock bit, though I guess we'll have to see how far it spreads into the shaded area. It's still quite a small frag, but I'm hoping it'll speed up a little bit when it gets some mass to it. I may try to remember to feed it more often and see if it speeds up a little. Right now, it gets fed roughly once a week. 

 

 

[banasophia]

2 minutes ago, Tired said:

I feed reef roids to my corals by adding just enough water to a pinch of food to make it a liquid that will go into the pipette. My acans get the first couple bits, then the sympodium is next, usually with slightly more diluted food. It doesn't like being disturbed, so I hold the pipette still, and the food settles out of the pipette onto the sympodium. It starts closing early, out of annoyance, if I blow the food at it. After a couple minutes, I gently blow the extra food away, because some almost always settles between the closed polyps. They close up really fast when I put the food on them, which is kinda gratifying. I don't use a lot of food, since the individual polyps are really small. 

Does anyone know if the speed at which a coral's polyps close means anything about how much food it needs? This one's polyps close up really fast when I put food on it, and I wonder if that's because it would naturally be catching food frequently, or if it's just because small polyps can close faster. 

 

This is a bad picture from... probably September? I had recently started feeding it now and then.

 

This is today. Don't mind the algae, a big snail died recently and I haven't had the energy to deal with the algae it caused. Aside from keeping corals clean. 

Not bad for three months of growth, considering how tiny it was to start with. I'm hoping it'll cover the whole end of this branching rock bit, though I guess we'll have to see how far it spreads into the shaded area. It's still quite a small frag, but I'm hoping it'll speed up a little bit when it gets some mass to it. I may try to remember to feed it more often and see if it speeds up a little. Right now, it gets fed roughly once a week. 

 

 

Oh yeah that looks really nice! I think it’s such a beautiful coral, one of my favorites. It grows really well at my LFS, into a nice mound on the bottom of the tank there. 

[Tired]

You could always ask your LFS what they do with it. I'd bet on more food being a good idea. Possibly higher nutrients, depending on your levels? My nutrients are pretty high right now, as you can see by the algae, and this stuff loves it. 

 

I don't think you'd have to feed specifically Reef Roids, but mine definitely can't take larger pieces, so you'll need some kind of smaller food. Reef Roids seems to be pretty universally liked among aquarium inhabitants, I don't think I've seen anything remotely relevant not like it. My cerith snails actually get excited when I feed it to a coral near them, and boy does it make my micro brittles come out in force.