Candy Cane division

[marcusbacus]

I have a question about the candy cane splitting... I have some trumpets for a while and I've seen them splitting (a lot, actually), but it seems that it's a little different with my candy cane (first time with one). The candy cane seems to be growing some sort of a "bud", surrounded by a slightly darker tissue (very thin), could this be the sign of a split? The trumpet when splitting first create the tiny second mouth besides the "original" then it proceeds to split and grow the new tissue, but with the candy cane it seems that it first create some form of tissue first then the mouth will appear later.

What I am a little concerned about is this darker tissue, I'm not sure if it can be a normal part of the division process or it could be something else. The whole coral seems to be pretty healthy so far, it's here for a couple weeks. I know also that when they lose a bit of their rounded shape it's a sign that they are starting to split. The bigger mouth at the left seems to have the same thing.

A picture, taken about half an hour after the lights went on (the arrows show the darker tissue):

 

[darkiss]

I feed mine, and they split right in half, never seen one split on the side, but your lighting/flow or whatever might be different.

 

[darkiss]

anyway, from what I have found it is a hardy coral and easy to make it grow. Plus she loves mysis, you feed yours? Candy Cane are something else when they eat. I like to see it eat the most

 

[marcusbacus]

I don't feed them directly (yet) but they do eat at night. It's at the bottom, my tank is a RSM 250 with its default lights and pumps. I've noticed (at night) that it is slightly different from the trumpet while eating as well. I don't think it's a light/flow issue. The mushrooms seem to look quite strange right before splitting too but I am worried with this darker tissue, actually.

 

[darkiss]

I have a candy cane frag splitting, when I get home I will take a picture for you to see it

 

[marcusbacus]

Here's one of my trumpets splitting (and my not-so-shy-anymore watchman!):

no darker tissue, new mouth (the right one) appeared first then tissue grew around it, and quite fast. Now it seems that there's even a third mouth at the left.

 

[darkiss]

yep, similar to mine, they split right down the middle like i was saying, will take a picture of mine that is a little further down the splitting line, over my lunch break.

Nice acan, how much did you pay for it?

 

[marcusbacus]

These are both favias (war and xmas?), the one at the right I got for free and the one at the left I think I paid $70, I bought a duncan but they said it wasn't in a good shape so they sent me the favia instead, $70 was the price of the duncan
I have another acan echinata though that is quite nice, still 2-3 heads but quite colourful and growing fast, it's supposed to have 4 colours but so far I've just seen 3 (purple, green and orange)...

 

[darkiss]

yep acan was just a guess.
nice they are favias, typically i look at the tenticals to tell them apart from acan, due to one have bigger. Not sure if that is the best way.

ya they look nice, candy cane I only like due to the way it eats.

 

[darkiss]

 

[darkiss]

marcusbacus The more i look at yours the more it looks like too much flow, but it is defiantly not how it normally splits.

give her even less flow, i don't even think they need anything over low flow, and every time I have them in anything over low flow, they don't do so hot.

 

[marcusbacus]

There's no direct/strong flow over it, it's actually close to this little trumpet of the other pic which is doing fine (the flow would affect both I guess) and it seems from the slight movement of its tentacles that the trumpet gets even more flow. I know how it looks too when a trumpet starts losing tissue which doesn't seem to be the case as well (yet?).

 

[darkiss]

well if there is no flow blowing directly at that spot then it might not be flow related, but i have mine out of flow and in between some rocks to get even less flow, since that is where i have found they do best at, for me

 

[mcjlance]

Could that part have been damaged?

 

[marcusbacus]

There was no division (so far), but the darker tissue disappeared entirely a couple days later. Must be some mood swing.

 

[Guygettnby]

here is mine. have had it since i started my new tank about 8 months ago.

 

[darkiss]

how many heads when you first started it 8 months ago?

 

[marcusbacus]

And here it is, fully recovered:

The caulastrea above is a trumpet I guess (kryptonite), which grows more tight than the candy cane kind that tends to have more space between the "trumpets".

 

[Guygettnby]

how many heads when you first started it 8 months ago?

About 10 or so. Never really counted. I may have to start fragging it pretty soon. It is growing too close to the front glass. There are a lot more heads that you can not see in this photo. It is a lot bigger then the picture makes it look.