duncan whisker coral question...

[brittlestar08]

Hello everyone, I just picked up a super sweet ORA duncan or commonly called hisker coral. I was hopeing for further imput.

here are my questions:
1. is it photosynthetic?
2. what does it eat?
3. what current is best? low, high, medium? direct or indirect?
4. what lighting is best? I have (2) 175 watt MH 15K and one 250 watt MH 15K with power compact supplamintaion. I currently have the coral about 10" from the surface and it took two days for it to fully open.

any further help would be highly appreciated. thanks

 

[Mental1]

1. No it is not photosynthetic.
2. Mine eats mysis, and whatever else I stick in its mouth
3. Medium flow like many LPS
4. Medium light but my understanding is that they will adapt to anything -- mine are at the bottom and middle of my 24 inch deep tank and both are smiling!

 

[otiso777]

It is photosynthetic, however being a deep water species it does rely on feeding as well.

 

[brittlestar08]

these are the kind of responces that I have been hearing... some say it is photosynthetic and than others say no its not photosynthetic... anyone else have a difinitive? thanks

 

[Hormigaquatica]

1) Duncan IS photosynthetic; not sure where the whole non-photo thing came from. They dont require intense light at all, but they do need light.

2) It will eat most fine meaty seafood. I use mysis heavily, but have also fed brine shrimp, cyclopeeze, flake food, and fine bits of krill

3) I always thought these were low to moderate flow corals for some reason. Nope. We put one about 12" from a Tunze wavebox, directly in line with the return from it, and it LOVED it. It took a couple days to adjust to the new flow, but I had no idea it could inflate so well. It really does look like a fluffy elegance coral now, rather than individual heads.

4) hmm, see 1)

 

[JM68]

definitely photosynthetic and likes low light although it will adjust to higher light if acclimated over time. loves being spot fed anything meaty a few times a week.

 

[tgfrench]

I had mine in a spot of relitivaly high turblent flow and it did ok. Once i moved it down out of the flow it really puffed up though. Fed well they are fast growers. Mine went from a single polyp to 6 in just a month and is branching out nicely.

 

[gasman059]

medium flow-photsynthetic and eats out of the watre column pot feedig in my case.

 

[thecichlidpleco]

It is photosynthetic since I didn't feed mine properly for many months and guess what still alive. However they do much better when you turn off the flow and let mysis sit on them. 2 mouths with no feeding, 1 head produced in 4 months; 3 heads with some feeding, 9 heads produced in 4 months.
And with what Mr. Phishy said, flow can be extreme and they will still love it, you would think opposite with their soft polyps.

 

[Mental1]

Sorry -- guess I am wrong again! Was told they HAD to be fed!

 

[brittlestar08]

that solves it... from my resurch and all the good folks who responded I would say it is also photosynthetic. thanks again everyone for contributing. its doing really well 8 heads and counting

 

[mrme]

I have mine High in the tank under a 150HQI, and in Medium Flow.
I feed it mysis and Cyclops-eez.
Its been doing great, i have had it for a month and a half now, and it has shot out another 4 heads, Be sure to feed the new heads as well, so that they grow fast as well.

 

[Rubicon06]

I have 2 different ones, they seem to like opposite things.

My pink/green (typical branch type) one loves medium to strong flow, I have it on the sandbed of my 5.5 under 36w of powercompacts, and it stretches tremendously.

My neon green one (I was told is an ORA Duncan) likes higher light, but much less flow.

I feed both, just cyclop as of now, trying to find a specific brand of mysid...

 

[brittlestar08]

what an awsome coral it is... becoming one of my favorite.

 

[Phishy]

I thought this thread needed some pictures! These are from my 450 reef. All are in the top 50% of my tank in high water flow. I run 400W MH on this tank. Duncans were acclimated for this high light!


This is a large wild colony about 6 inches across.

Side view of the above animal.

Mint green morph!

6 year old ORA colony started from one polyp.

 

[sindacate]

isnt all corals photosynthetic? well besides say sun polyp etc. If they open wide during the day, they are photo...