3"-4" SPS Colonies in EG

[Marc Daniels]

The Elk Grove Pet club got some nice SPS colonies in today $39.99. 3"-4". They are in high nutrient water, under poor lighting so get in while the getting is good.

 

[Marc Daniels]

The 3.5" colony I picked up, ignore the brown rocks.

 

[Jet Black]

Hehe, I saw those but was more interested in the plate coral.

Like stopping in there every once and awhile because of their "Assorted Corals" section.

 

[Saltwaternooby]

If it is a marine cultured piece I would break it off the plug. fYI

 

[tfp]

if its mari-cultured...PLEASE be sure to dip the heck out of it too!

 

[Marc Daniels]

Yes, cultured and wholesaler was most likely Pan Ocean.

Dipped, turkey basted, inspected and dipped again.

 

[Marc Daniels]

Anthony,

I am breaking stuff off so I can put it into my rockscape exactly where I want it. Then I move the encrusted disk to a temp frag tank. Why do you advise it though?

 

[Saltwaternooby]

Dipping wont kill eggs of most pests and those cement marine cultured plugs have a lot of places for bugs to hide.

 

[Marc Daniels]

I inspect predip with a jewelers loupe. then dip/swish/blast and reinspect the colony/plug and holding vessel...then repeat a second time. Anything I question gets removed via fine brush or razor. If I really have anything in question I have a variable power dissecting scope instead of the x10 loupe.

 

[greenhead]

When it comes to these types of wild maricultured colonies I always remove the base and all dead tissue. Followed by an extra strength dip and then look at the dip water closely. After a short bath in tank water I then look at it closely under a magnifying glass. If all is clear it then goes into the coral qt. Believe me even after all these steps I have had a few interesting creatures make it through. The worst being a coral burrowing worm often called a scary worm. It's a type of Eunice worm. The adults don't do much harm once they burrow in. But the babies play hell on coral by feeding on the fresh encrustment of frags and colonies. 2 months of hell trying to figure out what was causing slow stn on certain sps. Just thought I would mention it.

 

[artkwan]

Wow. Amazing. This is such a great learning discussion. Had no idea!

 

[Marc Daniels]

A little bit of hard work will prevent a whole lot of hard work if you let pests into your system. It is well worth your time....