Candy Cane Coral revisited
- Thread starter Foody
- Start date
I think they will benefit from some food. They may absorb some organics from the water too. All corals have some need for organic carbon( the 3rd nutirent). Even sps which are highly dependent on photosynthesis for it ,making it from CO2, light and water need some supplementation. Caulastrea come from mid to shallow depths and sandy bottoms and good lighting. and seem to like birsk alternating flow, perhaps to bring them food.
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
I have a somewhat skewed opinion about feeding corals.
Simply put: create an environment where they don't need to be maually fed.
Meaning... create a biotope where natural foods occur.
Caulastrea is a FANTASTIC coral in that mature colonies provide a HUGE safehaven for pods and other small (food source) critters.
Kind of like a refugium inside your aquarium!
Simply put: create an environment where they don't need to be maually fed.
Meaning... create a biotope where natural foods occur.
Caulastrea is a FANTASTIC coral in that mature colonies provide a HUGE safehaven for pods and other small (food source) critters.
Kind of like a refugium inside your aquarium!
my gigantea anemone needed more room. Between problems with the anemone and the Angelfish my big candycane needed to be fragged. I put it off for a long time but today was finally fragging day.
I knew there was a ton of huge bristleworms that came out from underneath this coral every night to feed on sandbed detritus. I was amazed to see no polychaetes when I lifted the 20+ lb. coral out of the aquarium.
ah-HA! there they are!
I discovered one of my Berghia inside the skeleton!
worms, mini stars and skeletal remains were returned to the cryptic zone in my sump
I should note. I don't feed mine directly and haven't seen an obvious feeding response like scolys and some others beyond extended tentacles from time to time. I haven't tried direct feeding for them in a while. My system has a pretty dense food web though and plenty of fish waste. I don't know if they are eating microfauna and bacteria or absorbing organics or a little of both. I have recently started using some Coral Frenzy, small micron food, 1x per week , mostly for sps and some zoanthidae just to see if there is any discernible difference. As long as your system's export can handle the extra nutrient input from feeding , I don't see a downside to trying it.
davidcoral
New member
Wow that was amazing! I just got into the hobby and snagged up a small two headed candy cane, how long did you have that monster for?
Dave
Dave
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
that's an older Caulastrea. Feeding this type of coral will definitely speed up it's growth. Kind of similar to many LPS. Coral Frenzy is a great product.
cardiffgiant
Active member
I used to feed mine, but haven't target fed it in over a year. It's a pretty fast growing coral. Mine isn't on the sand bed, and I haven't noticed anywhere near the collection of beneficial hitchhikers that Gary has. Maybe the next time I prune it I'll try to get it to a shape that can touch the sand bed directly.
