Help ID and more

[Spiker101]

Can someone tell me.
What coral is in the attached picture
How exactly do I take care of it? (food wise).
Also I am interested in fragging it donating/trading some of it away if some one is interested in helping.
I have a pencil sea urchin and I read that it is not really reef compatible. What kind of corals does it destroy?

 

[GregC]

Star Polups and Hair Algie. It usually kills by smothering out everything else. Prolly won't get many people interested in trades, but ya never know good luck.

 

[Spiker101]

Star Polups and Hair Algie. It usually kills by smothering out everything else. Prolly won't get many people interested in trades, but ya never know good luck.

Ha I knew the green algae part. Do you know what do I need for it food wise? Also, if anyone want to help me frag them, I can give most of it out for free (I want to make room for other stuff).

 

[GregC]

Reach in there and tear it off the rocks, you should be able to get quite a bit of it that way, other than that, drying out the rock is pretty much the only sure way I know of to get rid of it.

 

[Spiker101]

So it is basically like aiptasia and considered as a pest that no one actually want? Can anyone tell me what kind of reef is pencil urchin incompatible with or is it just everything?

 

[Mylilreef]

imo, there is no such thing as a reef-safe urchin. my blue tuxedo has a huge appetite for zoanthids, kenya trees, and about any other soft corals. for the zoas i thought it was either my damsel who likes to nip at things, or my rabbitfish who eyeballs them when i float them. i put a new frag in on a rack w/sides last week, fish can and have been by them w/ no problems, but my urchin can't reach them. i think i've found my problem child.

also they may eat some of the uglier and more nuisance algae, but will strip you beautiful coraline from your rock. not to mention the constant knocking over of frags and smaller rocks. honestly i would have to say the negatives far outweigh the positives. i'm actually looking to get rid of mine. maybe store credit at lfs or some sucker on craigslist...heh heh. good for a fish only tank though.

 

[Spiker101]

I guess I will have to get rid of my in a few more weeks. So far I haven't seen it eating anything at all. There are still tons of algae everywhere and it barely moves. Sometime I wonder how it is still alive. Can they climb rock vertically? so far I have not seen them climbing to the top.

 

[Mylilreef]

they can climb vertically, upsidedown, you name it. glass, plastic,or rock doesn't really matter. i've caught mine climbing on wavemaker cords, half out of the tank, even up on the returns of my hob skimmer and filters. even picking up rocks as big as he is, trying to camoflauge himself with them. real pita. if you have hair algae in your tank, mine didn't even hardly touch it when my tank was plagued with it. get a sea hare, they are awesome at mowing down hair algae. getting one of those was one of the best decisions i ever made.

 

[lauremf2002]

I have star polyps in both my tanks and never had a problem. They grow very slow for me so havent really been a plague. I wouldnt really say they are on the level of aiptasia. I guess it depends on the tank. I just pull it up like carpet when it gets to big.

 

[lauremf2002]

o and my emerald crab makes quick work of any hair algae in my tank. You have to supplement feed them algae strips when they have eaten all the algae in your tank though or they will starve.

 

[Mylilreef]

wasn't talking about the star polyps being plague-like, the hair algae can be though. like gregc was saying about it smothering everything out, i lost almost every coral in my tank from my hair algae choking it out. very difficult to get gid of once it overruns the tank. and the darned urchin is the pain, climbing everything and knocking stuff over.

 

[Spiker101]

they can climb vertically, upsidedown, you name it. glass, plastic,or rock doesn't really matter. i've caught mine climbing on wavemaker cords, half out of the tank, even up on the returns of my hob skimmer and filters. even picking up rocks as big as he is, trying to camoflauge himself with them. real pita. if you have hair algae in your tank, mine didn't even hardly touch it when my tank was plagued with it. get a sea hare, they are awesome at mowing down hair algae. getting one of those was one of the best decisions i ever made.

That is funny, as soon as I voice my doublt over my urchin'climbing ability here, it climbed to the top of the tank. I think I am getting q tailspoted blenny for the hair algae what do you think?