chrisstie
Premium Member
So whether you've been to a bunch of meetings or just one or are even planning on May being the first month you will go to one, you should know that the frag auction is a HUGE event with a lot of craziness going on as far as bidding but also for the people running the auction.
Actinodiscus, Micropthalma, Blastomussa oh my, what are all these crazy names and what do they mean?
Well if you know them already good for you, you can help me sort out which ones are what for the people who are dying to know what they can bid on and take home to their tank!
There's a few basic categories for corals - the non\not-so photosynthetic kind, "softies", LPS, and SPS. What does it mean?
Well the non and pseudophotosynthetic corals are ones that are generally meat eaters and don't need light to survive. Some will use a little but most will thrive off of regular feedings of mysis and any other delicious seafood on hand. These include your Dendrophyllia, Tubastrea (Sun Coral, did I spell the T word right?), Duncanopsammia, Rhizo-something-us aaand there may be a few more but they escape me right now! These are mostly LPS (Large polyped Stony) corals that have a skeletal tube and fleshy polyps that extend to catch meaty treats
The Softy category contains a lot of corals. The majority of these *should* do fine under PC (or better) lighting conditions. Typically if you have very strong halides it is a very wise idea to acclimate these corals to your lights, especially if they were kept under lower light conditions.
This category contains leathers, xenia, mushrooms, zoanthids, palythoas, toadstools, and anything that doesn't really have a skeleton. The key with these corals, though, is to give them and all others a wide space from each other. They can secrete chemicals to conduct warfare with other corals (particularly SPS) that will stunt growth, irritate, or possibly even kill a coral just because of its instinctual actions to protect its territory. Some people will do an all softy tank and only mix LPS with SPS. Mixed tanks are okay with caution- just make sure each coral has a few inches of room around it.
Also in this category you may want to wear gloves around mushrooms and zoanthids- the shrooms are slimey and the zoanthids can squirt out some nasty toxins that if caught in a hang nail (personal experience here!) sting like a four letter word I'd get banned for saying. It rhymes with.. well.. never mind. Its like 10x worse than a bee sting - and if you're allergic to bees wear gloves anyway, you could have an even worse reaction than I did to this stuff. Nothing to be scared of, just handle with caution!
LPS can generally do okay under just PC lighting but some like to be on the sand bed more than rockwork because of their large fleshy polyp'd nature. I find mine will acclimate to more intense lighting but its good to start them out on the bottom.
This category includes a lot of my favorites as well as many I haven't had the chance to keep- Euphyllia (frogspawn, torch etc), Anything considered a "brain" coral like trachyphyllias, lobos, acans, favia, faviids, moon corals, blastomussa, micromussa, candy canes and trumpets (caulestrea) pagodas, Chalices (echinos, oxys, mycediums too I think), plate corals, and a lot more i haven't named. The way to tell are the larger polyps you get on these guys and the poofy flesh over the skelton.
The key with these guys again is to give them their space. Some have feeder\stinging tentacles that can come out more than 6 inches and sting\grab\eat\kill your favorite coral if you don't give them space. Some only have short ones, others have very large ones. Go ahead and bid on these puppies just do your homework once you get home to find the best place for these to be.
Also, since these guys have skeletons you will need to keep your alk stable in the 8-12 dkH range, calcium hopefully above 400 and keep an eye on your magnesium - it helps to keep the other two balanced and stable and can sometimes get neglected.
Pro-tip LPS LOVE to eat! If you feed these guys every few days some mysis or whatever you use they will gobble it up. I have not seen LPS more healthy and happy than when it is being fed. Look for really awesome looking feeder tentacles at night. If you have cleaner shrimp, be weary they don't yank the food out of the corals mouths\guts.
SPSare one of the most baffling corals to me. Many people go NUTS over them because they resemble the "sticks" that make up a large part of the typical coral reef we envision in our heads. I personally have just gotten into them so I am not really great with them yet!
For these you NEED to have HIGH LIGHT. T5s\MHs\possibly LED.. You need to have as close to sunlight for these guys. Also GOOD FLOW is very very important for SPS. These guys have teeny tiny polyps all over and little slimey strings they stick out to feed on tiny stuff in the water colum (I feed stuff like coral vibrance) .. Without flow they can have detrius also stick to these and sit and rot their flesh away.
Good flow keeps them happy and healthy and near their natural environments.
Because of their skeletons these require similar properties like LPS- STABLE alk (when it gets unstable you may see skeletons appearing and thats not good) Ca, Mg
The easier to keep ones of these if you want to get started are montipora capriconis (monti caps) and probably montipora digitata. These do okay with slightly unstable parameters and you *might* just *might* get them to grow at the very top of a tank with PC lighting but I STRONGLY recommend against it. For some it works for others it might die.. not a sure thing, so why chance it?
There are a buttload of other similar looking corals that need a little more careful care. This is where SPS gurus excel and I am lost in the dust- there are so many Acropora and other species out there I am dumb founded. A. Millepora might be a good one to start with - these are the "hairy sticks" (my husbands terminology here) .. but there are others that have thinner stalks with flower shaped polyps and some that are tri color and other.. Well. Yeah. Here's about where some of you super cool guys and gals that I admire who have been in the hobby for a long time might want to jump in and elaborate for me
But there's a good start to a basic run down. Maybe print this out and keep it with you at a meeting when you're unsure of what you're bidding on. Hopefully it'll help!
Actinodiscus, Micropthalma, Blastomussa oh my, what are all these crazy names and what do they mean?
Well if you know them already good for you, you can help me sort out which ones are what for the people who are dying to know what they can bid on and take home to their tank!
There's a few basic categories for corals - the non\not-so photosynthetic kind, "softies", LPS, and SPS. What does it mean?
Well the non and pseudophotosynthetic corals are ones that are generally meat eaters and don't need light to survive. Some will use a little but most will thrive off of regular feedings of mysis and any other delicious seafood on hand. These include your Dendrophyllia, Tubastrea (Sun Coral, did I spell the T word right?), Duncanopsammia, Rhizo-something-us aaand there may be a few more but they escape me right now! These are mostly LPS (Large polyped Stony) corals that have a skeletal tube and fleshy polyps that extend to catch meaty treats
The Softy category contains a lot of corals. The majority of these *should* do fine under PC (or better) lighting conditions. Typically if you have very strong halides it is a very wise idea to acclimate these corals to your lights, especially if they were kept under lower light conditions.
This category contains leathers, xenia, mushrooms, zoanthids, palythoas, toadstools, and anything that doesn't really have a skeleton. The key with these corals, though, is to give them and all others a wide space from each other. They can secrete chemicals to conduct warfare with other corals (particularly SPS) that will stunt growth, irritate, or possibly even kill a coral just because of its instinctual actions to protect its territory. Some people will do an all softy tank and only mix LPS with SPS. Mixed tanks are okay with caution- just make sure each coral has a few inches of room around it.
Also in this category you may want to wear gloves around mushrooms and zoanthids- the shrooms are slimey and the zoanthids can squirt out some nasty toxins that if caught in a hang nail (personal experience here!) sting like a four letter word I'd get banned for saying. It rhymes with.. well.. never mind. Its like 10x worse than a bee sting - and if you're allergic to bees wear gloves anyway, you could have an even worse reaction than I did to this stuff. Nothing to be scared of, just handle with caution!
LPS can generally do okay under just PC lighting but some like to be on the sand bed more than rockwork because of their large fleshy polyp'd nature. I find mine will acclimate to more intense lighting but its good to start them out on the bottom.
This category includes a lot of my favorites as well as many I haven't had the chance to keep- Euphyllia (frogspawn, torch etc), Anything considered a "brain" coral like trachyphyllias, lobos, acans, favia, faviids, moon corals, blastomussa, micromussa, candy canes and trumpets (caulestrea) pagodas, Chalices (echinos, oxys, mycediums too I think), plate corals, and a lot more i haven't named. The way to tell are the larger polyps you get on these guys and the poofy flesh over the skelton.
The key with these guys again is to give them their space. Some have feeder\stinging tentacles that can come out more than 6 inches and sting\grab\eat\kill your favorite coral if you don't give them space. Some only have short ones, others have very large ones. Go ahead and bid on these puppies just do your homework once you get home to find the best place for these to be.
Also, since these guys have skeletons you will need to keep your alk stable in the 8-12 dkH range, calcium hopefully above 400 and keep an eye on your magnesium - it helps to keep the other two balanced and stable and can sometimes get neglected.
Pro-tip LPS LOVE to eat! If you feed these guys every few days some mysis or whatever you use they will gobble it up. I have not seen LPS more healthy and happy than when it is being fed. Look for really awesome looking feeder tentacles at night. If you have cleaner shrimp, be weary they don't yank the food out of the corals mouths\guts.
SPSare one of the most baffling corals to me. Many people go NUTS over them because they resemble the "sticks" that make up a large part of the typical coral reef we envision in our heads. I personally have just gotten into them so I am not really great with them yet!
For these you NEED to have HIGH LIGHT. T5s\MHs\possibly LED.. You need to have as close to sunlight for these guys. Also GOOD FLOW is very very important for SPS. These guys have teeny tiny polyps all over and little slimey strings they stick out to feed on tiny stuff in the water colum (I feed stuff like coral vibrance) .. Without flow they can have detrius also stick to these and sit and rot their flesh away.
Good flow keeps them happy and healthy and near their natural environments.
Because of their skeletons these require similar properties like LPS- STABLE alk (when it gets unstable you may see skeletons appearing and thats not good) Ca, Mg
The easier to keep ones of these if you want to get started are montipora capriconis (monti caps) and probably montipora digitata. These do okay with slightly unstable parameters and you *might* just *might* get them to grow at the very top of a tank with PC lighting but I STRONGLY recommend against it. For some it works for others it might die.. not a sure thing, so why chance it?
There are a buttload of other similar looking corals that need a little more careful care. This is where SPS gurus excel and I am lost in the dust- there are so many Acropora and other species out there I am dumb founded. A. Millepora might be a good one to start with - these are the "hairy sticks" (my husbands terminology here) .. but there are others that have thinner stalks with flower shaped polyps and some that are tri color and other.. Well. Yeah. Here's about where some of you super cool guys and gals that I admire who have been in the hobby for a long time might want to jump in and elaborate for me
But there's a good start to a basic run down. Maybe print this out and keep it with you at a meeting when you're unsure of what you're bidding on. Hopefully it'll help!
