brandon0350
New member
do acans grow them selves or will they only cover the rock they are on? and also what requirments do enchino have? ive never kept one but i want to. thanks for your help brandon
acan and enchino
- Thread starter brandon0350
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RandyO
Active member
Acanthastrea will grow their own skeleton. Some species do it better than others.
A.lordhowensis would rather completely encrust the rock it's on first before putting on it's own girth by depositing skeleton. I've seen lords start to grow on the underside of the rock they are on.
A.echinata likes to encrust too, but not as much as lords. When they reach the end of the rock, they will plate out, creating a thick skeleton.
I have an Acan that may be either A.subechinata or A.echinata. It had a cone shaped base, and the top part of the cone was where all the flesh was. When I was making frags of this coral, I cut the pointy tip of the cone off the base to make it easier to frag. And to my surprise, it was not rock at all. It was a perfect cross section of corallites. This coral must have started out as just a few polyps, and deposited about a lb. of skeleton. As it grew, the head of the coral got bigger, making the cone shape.
I wish I kept that little nub of the cone. I never took any pic's of it.
As for the enchino, It's Echino, short for Echinophyllia. They are easy to keep. They can be kept under any type of lighting, provided they are slowly acclimated to higher light. They can be kept in low or medium flow, some accept foods, and the water does not have to be supper clean.
I keep most of my Echinophyllia on the bottom of a 40 breeder, with 2 96 watt PC bulbs.
Most of them are better colored under PC lighting than Halide lighting, in my experience. Especially the reds.
A.lordhowensis would rather completely encrust the rock it's on first before putting on it's own girth by depositing skeleton. I've seen lords start to grow on the underside of the rock they are on.
A.echinata likes to encrust too, but not as much as lords. When they reach the end of the rock, they will plate out, creating a thick skeleton.
I have an Acan that may be either A.subechinata or A.echinata. It had a cone shaped base, and the top part of the cone was where all the flesh was. When I was making frags of this coral, I cut the pointy tip of the cone off the base to make it easier to frag. And to my surprise, it was not rock at all. It was a perfect cross section of corallites. This coral must have started out as just a few polyps, and deposited about a lb. of skeleton. As it grew, the head of the coral got bigger, making the cone shape.
I wish I kept that little nub of the cone. I never took any pic's of it.
As for the enchino, It's Echino, short for Echinophyllia. They are easy to keep. They can be kept under any type of lighting, provided they are slowly acclimated to higher light. They can be kept in low or medium flow, some accept foods, and the water does not have to be supper clean.
I keep most of my Echinophyllia on the bottom of a 40 breeder, with 2 96 watt PC bulbs.
Most of them are better colored under PC lighting than Halide lighting, in my experience. Especially the reds.
brandon0350
New member
thanks for answering my questions
xdusty6920
New member
always a pleasure seeing your echinos randy! just wondering what happened to the bottum of the pink echino on the left? it looks a bit darker like it was recovering from something.
RandyO
Active member
From time to time, I've had Echinophyllia develop small holes in there flesh. Sometimes they heal on their own, sometimes they need to be cut out. That one was cut out after a couple of months. Once the white skeleton underneath grew some algae, it was hard for it to grow back over it.
XeniaMania
Active member
Mine was growing holes until I moved it into lower light, 3 inches to be exact and now it's healing.
floridareefs
New member
randy,
You got some gorgeous stuff there. Love the echinos. Let me know if you ever ge tthe earge to frag them.
You got some gorgeous stuff there. Love the echinos. Let me know if you ever ge tthe earge to frag them.
