Tharsis' 20 long ~2-11-12~ sps and lps pics!

I'm not any good at identifying frags yet, but they look nice!

 

Thanks!

Thanks, I am lost at the moment with the ID'ing, and the guys at the LFS are really not much help. They have a great frag tank with tons of cool stuff but the only person who seems to know what anything is is the owner, and he is never there.

Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention in the previous post, I have started feeding my corals. I got a bottle of Oyster feast the other day and have been adding 1/4 tsp to the tank just before I turn the lights out. It is hard to tell if the sps are liking it but the shrooms and rics go bananas.

 

Questions about feeding coral: Is it better to dose the whole tank with food or to spot feed the corals? Are there situations that warrant one over another? When spot feeding, do you turn off the flow in the tank?

 

LPS will take larger pieces of meaty seafoods like mysids and fine pieces of other meaty foods like clam and such. If they do not have the tentacles extended at the time of feeding, by the time they show a feeding response the food is already in the filtration system or consumed by the cuc.

Best to introduce a small amount of food at night initially ( train for day feedings), give them 20 or thirty minutes to show a feeding response, tentacles out and then feed more aggressively. Target feeding with a turkey baster and actually covering some ( plastic coke liter bottle cut in half) if you have an enthusiastic CUC.


Sps are some what a little more difficult and need a slurry of fine particles and take a little longer to show a feeding response. Some sps take nutrition at night and some during the day. Again add a very small amount and let them show a feeding response and then feed more aggressively but without direct target feedings by turkey baster. If your lighting is sufficient sps will mostly likely be fine without concern for direct feedings.

I have done it both ways, pumps on, pumps off. Now I leave them on with no significant difference and you do not risk leaving the pumps off by mistake.

 

Thanks! What does a feeding response look like for sps? Do they just have increased polyp extension?

I have been turning off the pumps and squirting a little cloud of oyster feast directly at them, but I have not seen any noticeable change in the polyps when I do this.

My lights are not the greatest (4xT5HO odyssea fixture) for sps, although I have placed the coral ~4-5" from the light so they are still getting a fair amount.

 

Hopefully this will be of assist.

After adding food to the water column it takes some time to see a feeding response in both types of corals. Over time the you see the feeding response faster and sometimes more exaggerated.

http://www.3reef.com/forums/sps-cor...have-learned-observed-6-16-2011-a-100595.html

 

fantastic pics in that thread, thank you for sharing! I will try your method for a couple weeks and see if I get a response.

 

I use coral vibrance for mine and i have even got wild caught fish to start eating using it.They would have probably died without it.

 

The birthday mandarin goby

So I have a little story to share with you all.

It is my birthday today and my wonderful wife and kids (4 year old twins) wanted to get me a gift for my tank. They decided that a fish would be great. The only problem is that she wanted it to be a surprise and she went to the LFS that fed her tons of bad information.

Last night at about 1 am, she wakes me up and tell me that she and the kids had picked out a fish from the LFS that day. She then says she is worried it would not survive in the bag until morning because it was getting cold. At this point it had already spent about 12 hours in the bag. Apparently the guy at the LFS told her that the fish would be fine in the bag overnight, so she thought she would leave it in there and surprise me with it this morning. Luckily she realized that this may not be a good idea.

So there I am at 1 am last night floating my new mandarin goby in my tank trying to get it acclimated. And this brings us to the second part...

Apparently, the guy first tried to sell her a tang for my 20 gallon tank, luckily she knew not to get that as we have talked about tangs (she wanted to get a dory for the kids...) and small tanks. So then he convinces her to get the mandarin goby; it is a great looking fish but I fear that I do not have enough of a pod population to sustain it at the moment since my tank is not very old. I have a bunch of pods in my refugium so in preparation I took a huge chunk of chaeto out of the fuge and let it float in the DT over night.

So then... my wife tells me that the kids were super duper excited to give me the fish for my birthday so I woke up early this morning and bagged the poor little guy again. While I was showering, my wife and the kids put the bag in a little box and wrapped it for me.

I unwrapped my gift and was really able to get a good look at the guy, and I must say he is absolutely stunning. What an incredible fish. I want to keep him because my kids are super excited, and because he is an awesome looking fish but I am concerned about his eating habits. I already have a fairly large pod population, I can see them all over the place in my fuge but I think I am going to buy some pods and try to get the population booming so that he can be happily fed.

I am also going to try to get him onto prepared foods. He looks fairly plump right now, but I will keep an eye on him and if he looks like he is not eating enough I will bring him back to the LFS.

So that is my birthday story and the addition of the Mandarin goby.

I will take some pics this afternoon when I get home, my wife has told me that, as of know, he is happily swimming around foraging for pods. If anyone has some tips for getting the pods from my fuge to the DT please share.

 

That story sound familiar lol. My wife and kids surprised me with a Yellow Tang for my 40 gallon tank lol. He did awesome until he died, and I still don't know what happened lol other then probably just being stressed. Good luck to you. I wish I could help you with your question, but this will at least get a bump.