Chalice - ID/care advice wanted

MiddletonMark

MiddletonMark

Premium Member
Let me start off with saying that while I might know how to make some other stony corals thrive in my tanks, I know very little of this variety of corals.

Thus I've always shied away from them ... but while I put my ticket in the IMAC lottery for the sequence pump, I got a 4-pack of `chalice' frags. Hard to regret bringing 4 gorgeous corals home. Best conference, ever. :lmao:


But ... then the dilemma. I always research first, am hesitant to buy something new ... but now I need to learn on the fly. I'm unlikely to find as nice a 4-pack any other time ... perhaps none as nice as these.

I'd love advice that can take these frags and grow them into large colonies to fill my future tanks, colonies my children can grow up with.

ID-wise, I would appear to have a couple genus here. [?]
In the end, while species is of interest ... I'll take genus, good enough for search ... specific/general, I'll take it.

Given my `best tank' is an Acropora-dominated tank, 250w MH, fairly high flow [though bubble, frogspawn, acans have a quieter area] ... I would love to be able to find them good places where they can quietly grow and thrive for many years.

But yet, I'd love to hear how you've made similar corals thrive, if you've got great threads about certain ones, advice for flow/MH light ... any and all advice appreciated. :)

-FWIW, my camera's doing poorly on color/exposure, #1 looks bleached in pictures but not to the eye.

Then again, they look more stressed than a few days ago - I assume multi-day trade shows aren't the best for coloring/stability that corals do best in ;)
Given IMO they look lovely now ... I can only wait.

Onto the corals ... here together:
chalice-grouping2.jpg

chalice-grouping1.jpg
 
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I'd love to get individual [or general] advice on them, so I've numbered them. Maybe not the most elegant, and if you want to name them for me ... be my guest. Might end up with some, but it's too early - I don't know their potential.

Anyway ....

#1:
What can you tell me about making it thrive?
chalice_1a.jpg

chalice_1aa.jpg


#2:
chalice_2.jpg

chalice_2a.jpg

chalice_2b.jpg
 
nice pickup mark,
ive had quite a few of them over the last year. i wont attempt to make any types of id's on these guys, especially after charles and borneman just bleached and scoped a few and found some to actually be acanthastrea species.

ive had about 10 colonies and all seem to prefer medium light and flow. place them anywhere you would be comfortable placing candy canes or blastos. ive almost lost a few to intense lighting, so i make sure to start them off as far from the bulbs as possible.
 
Hi Mark,
Beautiful pieces. I also won't attempt ID'ing them, however, I find that moderate light with LOW flow to be ideal. Any flow that is turbulent will peel the flesh right off them.

My avatar is a chalice (mycedium elephantotus). I've fragged chalice's with a dremel and they've all healed and recovered beautifully. They all seem to be slow growers. On ocassion you'll see sweepers extend from them (not on a regular basis) so they can be considered low to moderately aggressive.

You got a beautiful 4 pack there. Good luck with them. And post updates to the pix and how they're doing.

Russ
 
Thanks for the advice, I couldn't agree more that they're just gorgeous ... I always tried to avoid looking too hard at these corals, so I couldn't get hooked by them. Guess it's too late now :)


Do you target feed yours?
What time of day, do you get any visible response, what do you feed?

I'll take that flow advice to heart as my tank can have some turbulent and strong sweeping currents ... like the frogspawn + bubble I'll need to find a suitable locale, or alter things to create one.
 
No ID from me either, but Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ve kept these guys for a while and my tank is set up in a similar fashion to yours. The will tolerate more flow than frogspawn,bubble, hammers will. However they donââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t like direct flow. Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ve kept them as high as half way up my 24ââ"šÂ¬Ã‚ tank under 250w with no ill effects but found they seem to like the bottom 1/3 of the tank better. Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ve never target fed and only rarely have seen any tentacles exposed, they are small and easy to miss. I find these corals to be very hardy and fast growers in my tank. Much faster than most LPS Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ve kept. Good luck they look like gems!
 
feeding during the day is tough with some of them. they seem slowest of any corals to adapt to daytime feeding. i normally throwin some of the thawed food juices half and hour before i feed to give the corals a chance to put out their feeding tentacles. these guys almost never respond. i have to actually put a few pieces of food on them and hope it stays there long enough for them to open up and grab it. even when they do open up, the tentacles stay very retracted. i use a tweezer to get food to any of the open heads.
 
I don't direct feed anything in my tank except a chili coral.
I do feed the tank amongs the standard frozen mysis, daphnia, blood worms, enriched brine shrimp and marine herbivore diet, some cyclopeeze and DT's Oyster Eggs.

As mentioned already, it is very sporatic to see any sweepers. I've got a few different chalices and I have only seen sweepers on one of them (my avatar). They are short and very easy to miss. I've only seen them at 2 - 4 am (lights out for many hrs).

Russ
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7288896#post7288896 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReeferMac
Dude, just stick 'em on the sandbed, and fuggedaboutit! ;)

- Mac
Click to expand...

No sand bro! Seriously thats about the extent of it. My only problem with these corals(the unmounted ones) is that they would get blown away until I found the perfect spot!
 
Mark

I would say that your numbers 3 and 4 look like Acans either Echinata or subechinatas. First two I think are Echinos.

They like less flow than your SPS do. If you give them a lot of lot and a shelter them from the flow, they may morph on colors into some of the craziest colors you have in your tank. Great score.
 
The are fairly common on mid-forereef slopes and uber common in lagoons. Generally moderate or moderately bright light is good. Than can survive on pretty dim light though. They probably get a lot of nutrition from fine particulate material and detritus in nature along with some zooplankton as they do tend to be very common in turbid areas and fringing reefs (i.e. lots of particulate matter in the water).

Moderate to moderately strong water flow is probably best. Again, these are corals common to mid-reef slopes and lagoons mostly, so protected from waves, but subject to powerful currents.

I wouldn't put them smack dab under the lights or in front of pumps, but they'll probably be ok at most other positions in the tank.

As for IDing, these are really hard to get even to the genus level most of the time without examining the skeleton. Even then it can be hard to get to genus level. They are probably mostly from the genera Echinophyllia and Oxypora, though I wouldn't rule out a few others completely ;) All pretty similar though, so actual ID shouldn't particularly matter for care or anything.

Chris
 
Thanks for the responses, they seem to be doing fine a week in ... likely will scatter them a little more through the tank - under an Acropora here, a ledge there ... sheltered from the flow.

Wasn't expecting to put them in heavy light - might err a little lower now than before.

Doing well at a week, thanks folks :)

I've got a close enough ID - giving me an idea where it would be in nature, guesses at conditions. Seems to line up with the Echinophyllia/Oxypora thought ... happy to have many second opinions.
 
Hi Mark,beautiful corals.I hate the "chalice" name so i wont go there.I agree with you on a couple being Echinophyllia sp.I've kept Echinopora
sp. as well as Echinophyllia and neither seem to be big eaters typical of many LPS(I dont consider Echinopora LPS though).My most recent addition is what i believe to be Ananthastrea rotundaflora,although it would fall in to the generic "chalice" category,it is unlike and Echino's i've kept before because it is a very active feeder at night displaying a ring of feeding tentacles around the polyp.I'll be doing a skeletal examination of it this week to try and confirm my ID.
echinosp.jpg

echino2.jpg
 
davejnz- looks like echinophyllia aspera to me. ive got a dozen or so and many of them put off that little short ring of feeders around the mouth. the rotundoflora's ive seen are extremely flat and there is very little protruding from the coral.
 
I would concur that is not a rotundoflora, however pic #3 above could possibly be, but I think they are all echinophyllia sp. Nice colors by the way.
 
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