Also is Acan toxic

[tropicfish]

I would also like to know about what is called an acan. I believe the coral is in the brain coral family, but other then that I do not know much about whether they are toxic or release chemicals, and if they are aggressive and can sting corals.thanks

 

[NicoleC]

All corals can protect themselves with either chemicals or stingers or both, and any person can have a reaction to any coral.

Acanthastrea sp. corals do have sweeper tentacles and can be aggressive to nearby corals, but shouldn't be able to harm corals ~ 2" away. Most people will not have a reaction to their sting.

They will appreciate feedings of finely minced seafood, and will reward your feedings with rather fast growth.

 

[tropicfish]

Thanks for the information. I couldn't find that information in my book.

 

[tropicfish]

Where I'm placing the coral should be fine for it

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Do you have Eric Borneman's book Aquarium Corals? This book is one of the more comprehensive books on popular corals.

It's good to do a good research on corals, but you seem to be overly concerned about toxicity of corals. As Nicole pointed out in another thread of yours, corals will fight one way or another, even within the same species. However, as long as you stay within the same species or the type of corals that are known to occur in the same area, you have less to worry about. If you are fond of LPS's and SPS's, I suggest that you stay away from certain soft corals. Eric Borneman lists Sarcophyton, Lemnalia, Sinularia, Nephthea, Lobophytum and Cespitularia to be highly toxic. Some LPS's also have very powerful nematocysts that can harpoon a long distance. You might want to be careful with these as well.

I recall that you mentioned somewhere that your tank is nearly 4 months old. You might consider letting your tank mature a bit more before getting into SPS's and more challenging type of corals. I find new tanks are less forgiving about aquarist's mistakes.

Tomoko

 

[tropicfish]

Someone told me about his book andI read the book last night. I wasn't overly concerned I just wanted to make sure what corals would be ok to go in my tank. I'm trying to plan what corals will go in my tank so that I make the correct choices in buying them. I wasn't sure about what all I could put in there when I heard about the chemical warfare, but the book really helped to understand it more. Thanks for all of your help. I want to take as good of care of my reef tank as I can.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Besides the chemical warfare, you need to also take into consideration the needs of specific corals you would like to add to your tank. There is also a concern of parasites. There are a number of parasites going around among hobbyists' and distributors' tanks. If you haven't done that yet, it would be a real good idea to set up a QT tank before you add more corals and fish to your tank.

Tomoko

 

[tropicfish]

Thanks for all the information you've given me. I do have a quarantine tank set up.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Very good. Have you figured out how much light you have over your 75G tank?

Tomoko