ID this hitch hiker please....

Pea-brain

Pea-brain

In Memoriam
hi. This coral came as a hitch hiker with some GSP and someone said they were palythoa. they seem to eat stuff and When I come back I notice a white hole in the middle and the food is gone so I assume it is eating it. I'm keeping it under 18 watt NO 50/50 lighting and it seems to be fine. can anyone give me a specific ID and care reqiurements? maybe tell me if I SHOULD be feeding it or not? and how do I frag it? I don't want it overgrown by GSP.....

DCFN0010_1.jpg


Thank you.

Dan
 
lo0ks like a palythoa to me. They will survive off light/nutrients in the water, but I was told you can target feed them to increase growth.

nice sig btw, you addicted to ever-crack as well?
 
Hey Pea-brain . . . :D

That looks to be a common Green Button Polyp (a Palythoa). I have a few of these in my tank and I love them. Yeah, they may not be the prettiest to look at, but in the right light they can color up a nice green color. As pass1over suggested, target feeding them will increase growth. Every time I do this I see an explosion of growth (up two 4-5 baby polyps per 2 weeks or so) and the color seems to get better and better. Plus, it's kind of cool to see them eat sinking pellets! This, however, is totally optional because these can live under almost any type of lighting.

If you don't want it where it is, simply take a razor blade to the rock and scrape up the mat from underneath the coral. (If you can, take a small amount of rock up with the mat. this will help the superglue bond easier.) After that just superglue it to whatever rock you want and place it in an area of medium flow (enough to rustle the skirts) so the coral does not become infected. I've done this a couple of times and it works like a charm! The polyps even opened up in a couple of minutes after the fragging!

Hope this helps,

-Sevein
:strooper:
 
Pass1over-I want to play everquest but my computer is pretty crappy. I got a 3dfx voodoo (One of the first dedicated 3D graphics cards! w00t!) So I'm playing Elder scrolls: oblivion on my PS3 until I get a good computer. But between my tank and my need for more video games I spread myself a little too thin to save up for a good PC.

I'm having trouble telling their mat apart from the GSP mat and also don't have any super glue that would be tank safe (I've been using rubberband to hold down GSP frags, but I don't think that would work here) Is there any way I can tell if Super glue is reef safe? OR a way that doens't need superglue (I heard something about putting them in a cup with a rock and letting them sit...)

Dan
 
I use the Loctite Super Glue Gel. You can buy it at any Wal-Mart etc. Its main ingredient is cyanoacrylate which is reef safe. The key with using super glue is to not use more than you need. Just use enough to attach the bottom of the mat securely to the rock.

In my tank the polyp's mat is a dark brown color. So far it hasn't spread out far beyond the polyps themselves. I wouldn't look much farther thank directly under each of the polyps. Chances are if you start to scrape up the mat . . . the rest will come up pretty quickly.

Of course you could always use a natural way of attaching the zoas to the rock. This may encourage faster growth due to the mat tissue not being bond to rock. (Hence the reason you want to scrape a small amount of rock up with the mat.) I would advise against using a cup to attach the polyps because this can restrict flow. Without getting into a long and drawn out discussion on why restricted flow is bad for a fragged coral let's just say that the flow helps the coral heal. (If you want to learn more about flow, coral healing, or fragging in general check out this video .) IMO the best method to attach zoas/palys naturally is to use bridal veil or some equivalent material. This secures the coral where you want it, allows water to flow relatively freely, and does not put unnecessary pressure on the coral tissue.

Oh and Oblivion is awesome!
 
Ive got a couple pesky mushro0ms that absoultely refuse to attach to rocks via the superglue method. Will try bridal veil material next.

Ive been playin EQ for 5 years now, along with Planetside and various titles on the Wii. Cant do without my video games, heh.
 
Hey pass1over you might try this out on the mushrooms. I found that if you take a needle and fishing line to a mushroom, thread it (like a bead on a string), and tie it off to the rock in question the mushroom will attach in a few days to a week. When they have secured themselves to the liverock you can just snip the fishing line and pull it out of the mushroom. It's a little easier to manage than the bridal veil method because there are less ties you have to make and you can tie more than one shroom to the rock at one time. With bridal veil you are forced to put each mushroom in separately if you want to position them precisely. (That is unless you don't care where they are on the rock . . . then you can toss all of them under the veil and they will attach where they want.)

I have found that shrooms can stand just about any sort of abuse you throw at them. It's pretty amazing really.
 
so stick the needle with fishing line attached through their fo0t? if so, is just 1 pass through enough?

yes, I am very surprised as well at the abuse they can and will take. I didnt believe the whole super glue thing until I heard about 4 or 5 people tell me. Amazes me. Wonder who the first brave soul was that tried that?
 
Yup one pass through their food should do nicely. In fact the first time I fragged a shroom I cut it into 4 quarters through the oral disc. I thought that the mushroom was a goner for sure! I was wrong . . . in a couple of weeks I had four separate mushrooms!

Sorry to hijack this thread Pea-brain, but it's just amazing what corals can go through sometimes!

Actually you really should download and watch that video I linked earlier if you can. I have learned a lot from it! The Louisiana reef club had Eric Borneman come and do a frag demonstration at one of their meetings. Someone had the presence of mind to video tape and share the experience. (Eric Borneman, if you didn't know, is a noted coral reef specialist and basically does our awesome hobby for a living! :D :D :D )

-Sevein
 
yea, sorry pea-brain.
I can steer it back on topic a bit though. Ive fragged shro0ms, but never a zoa. Gonna have to give fragging a zoa a try as some of my colonies are reaching fragging size.
Ive read they are resilient as well at healing themselves and thriving on.
 
In fact, check this post out. Someone has actually cut a paly in half and it grew into two separate polyps . . . just like a mushroom! I'm going to try this with an actual zoanthid tomorrow.
 
Hmmm....I have a pretty low flow area in my 2nd tank (3 10 gallons connected) The tank doesn't have a light but the corner I want to put it in gets some nice sunlight or a few hours. Maybe if I cut the head off a smaller polyp and place it on the rock in the corner there it would attach to the rock. If it doesn't attach no biggie, right? The polyp that I want to cut off is far enough from the other polyps that if it gets infected I could separate it pretty easy.

BTW I didn't really care about you guys taking the thread. I got what I needed out of it and it was an interesting discussion :D

Dan
 
I actually just read that article last night! Its very interesting, just wish the pics still worked in the OP.

Even though I know its hard to hurt them by fragging, I still cringe a little every time I take the razor blade to my corals.
 
Hey Pea-brain,

I'm sure the polyps would do ok in the corner of that 10 gallon, but you may look at getting some sort of normal output fluorescents or even some power compacts down the line. Then you can turn that 10g into a type of prop tank! :D I would be worried about the unpredictability of the sunlight that reaches that corner of the tank . . . they are low light corals but they do require a fairly steady source.

And I wouldn't fret too much about infection. As long as you take the right precautions you should be just fine.

:strooper:
 
I don't plan on them being in there for much longer than it takes for them to get attached. that is an interesting idea but the only corals I have are the GSP and these palys and I'd rather just let them grow themselves and just trim them. I only want to move the palys because they'll be taken over by GSP......

Dan
 
I just took the rock out and started to cut the head off the small polyp but I hesitated and it closed up before I could finish it. I'm gonna have to wait and see if it will come out again before I try that again....

Dan
 
okay, the attempt at removing the head from a polyps completely destroyed it, So I pried the mat out from under an unnopened polyp (I think it was still developing) I made sure to use gloves and wash good. No worries :D

Dan
 
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