Let's talk about corals to stock in a non-photosynthetic aquarium

[Aquabacs]

As our non-photosynthetic forum continues to grow a common question that is asked is: What kind of non-photosynthetic corals are there and what are their care level. It is our duty as members of this forum to help our community grow and help increase exposure of non-photosynthetic corals to reefkeepers.

Let's make the thread interesting, interactive, and hopefully a little educational in the process.

Guidelines:

• Post one picture of the coral you are going to discuss (no full tank shots)
• Scientific name of the coral
• Common name of coral
• Type of coral (LPS, Soft Coral, Gorgonian, etc)
• Care Level-
  Beginner: (corals that are to be recommended for a reefkeeper who has kept corals before but has not kept non-photosynthetic corals) these corals are to be the hardiest, simple direct feeding, and easiest to maintain.
  Intermediate: (corals that are to be recommended for a reefkeeper who has kept beginner non-photosynthetic corals thriving in their aquarium for a period of time) these corals are more moderate in hardiness and require a higher care level than Beginner.
  Advanced (corals that are to be recommended for a reefkeeper who has kept Intermediate non-photosynthetic corals thriving in their aquarium for a period of time) these corals are more delicate in hardiness and require a higher care level than Intermadiate. In addition, these corals require more dedication to their specific feeding needs (for example:continuous autofeeding of liquid, live, dry or frozen).
  Expert: these corals should only be attempted by seasoned non-photosynthetic reefkeepers who are aware of the husbandry practices needed to sustain them in a closed system.
• How does the coral reproduce (if known)
• Coral Placement/Orientation
• Feeding: types of food recommended for sustaining the coral and how the food should be administered: direct fed, broadcast, etc.
• Additional tips or words of wisdom of keeping this type of coral

Now these are just the basics to start with. If you have any recommendations to add, feel free to do so.

Mike

 

[smsreefer]

Should be a great thread Aquabacs !
Looking forward to some good replies as well !

 

[Aquabacs]

I will start the thread off with Dendrophyllia

I will start the thread off with Dendrophyllia

Dendrophyllia sp.

Common names: Dendro, Super Sun Coral, Firecracker coral

Type of Coral: LPS

Care Level: Beginner

Reproduction: reproduces by (asexual) budding, (sexual) planula release, can be easily fragged.

Coral Placement/Orientation coral in not finicky in placement or with flow, can be glued or epoxied vertically or horizontally

Feeding: prefers meaty foods: mysis, prawns, squid, brine shrimp, cyclop-eeze, chopped silversides. Food should be fed directly to the polyp either by feeding tongs or turkey baster daily.

Additional tips or words of wisdom Dendrophyllia sp. is a great beginner coral and normally the gateway coral into keeping of non-photosynthetic corals. It is has become easily available to the public, fequent art frag swaps and one of the hardiest non-photosynthetic corals available. Yes, this coral can survive on less than daily feeding but in our aquariums we are looking for more than survival

 

[Timeless1483]

Name: Tubastraea sp

Common Name: Sun Coral

Colors available: Black, Olive, Yellow, Red

Reproduction: planula release, budding, easily fragged.

Coral Placement: loves flow, can be glued or epxoed vertically or horizontally. Can also be placed in direct light, but lower in the tank.

Feeding: Brine, Mysis, Photoplankton, Cyclop-eese, krill, table shrimp-raw-Meaty foods in small bit size pieces.

Additional info: This is a very beautiful coral, easy to care for, but should be a decatitated hobbist. Daily feedings will make this coral trive, but keep an eye on nutrient export. Weekly water changes is a must.

 

[Timeless1483]

Scientific:Rhizotrochus typus

Family: Flabellidae

Common:Rhizotrochus typus, Rhizo

Colors: White, pink, red, orange, green

Reproduction: Budding-They send out tubes from skeleton, and new babies appear.

Coral Placement: Can be glued or expoxed to LR, and can be placed in substrate. Like gentle to moderate flow.

Feeding: This LPS coral loves Silverside, mysis, krill. Meaty foods. Small daily feeding is good, but will be find with weekly feedings(1 silverside)

Additional info: Not a great deal on the net, expensive ($100-$1000), normally from the waters of Japan, but not limited too. It is ok in light, but expands to 5 times it size at night, and after feeding.Rhizotrochus typus is a reef building coral, which has not formed a mutualistic symbiosis with zooxanthellae. Species from the Flabellidae family likely occur up to several kilometers in depth, in the Indo-Pacific region. They feed on plankton, detritus, crustaceans, fish and possibly dissolved organic molecules. R. typus is exported for the aquarium trade. These corals require ample feeding with crustaceans and small fish.

 

[uhuru]

Name: Tubastraea sp

Common Name: Sun Coral

Colors available: Black, Olive, Yellow, Red

Reproduction: planula release, budding, easily fragged.

Coral Placement: loves flow, can be glued or epxoed vertically or horizontally. Can also be placed in direct light, but lower in the tank.

Feeding: Brine, Mysis, Photoplankton, Cyclop-eese, krill, table shrimp-raw-Meaty foods in small bit size pieces.

Additional info: This is a very beautiful coral, easy to care for, but should be a decatitated hobbist. Daily feedings will make this coral trive, but keep an eye on nutrient export. Weekly water changes is a must.

I would change this to zooplankton. Also, I would take out the weekly water change requirement, just because everyones tank is different and there are no definite rules as long as water quality is acceptable. Like you said, "keep an eye on nutrient export" is the key.

 

[smsreefer]

Great info guys !
Lets keep them coming.
Hopefully , In the end ,someone should publish all the information.
As we all know,there are not that many resources .
Thanks

 

[uhuru]

Diodogorgia nodulifera

Common names: Yellow or Red Finger Gorgonian

Type of Coral: Gorgonian

Care Level: Intermediate

Reproduction: most likely sexual

Coral Placement/Orientation Insensitive to light. Unknown whether laminar flow or turbulent flow yields better results, but I have mine directly in the path of a vortech with flow that would probably stress out high flow loving Acropora corals.

Feeding: Zooplankton, eggs/larvae, possibly bacterioplankton and detritus. Food should be no larger than frozen cyclopeeze, with the majority being much smaller such as rotifers. Polyps will retract without constant food in the water.

Additional tips or words of wisdom This is a good first gorgonian if you are venturing into an NPS system. They are still difficult relative to most photosynthetic corals. You should feed small amounts as often as possible. A continuous feeding system will yield the best results as the polyps should stay open almost 24/7. If the polyps stay closed most of the time, either you don't have enough flow, enough food in the water or your water quality is too poor. This coral will grow vertically from the tips and "encrust" from the base if it is healthy. It will grow in the direction of the strongest flow and can handle literally being blasted with it. The tissue gets algae and detritus build up easily and should be kept clean (high flow will help a lot).

 

[Aquabacs]

Awesome job guys! Keep them coming.

Timeless1483 dont forget to add pictures of the coral you are speaking of It will help the reader/reefer connect an image with the information.

Mike

 

[smsreefer]

Great thread !
Anyone with [ waiting on ] Trikentrion flabelliforme /Red Spider Sponge experience ?

 

[Timeless1483]

scientific name: Alcyonium species-Shili Sponge


[IM<a href="http://s890.photobucket.com/albums/ac101/Timeless1483/?action=view&current=IMG_0652_edit.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i890.photobucket.com/albums/ac101/Timeless1483/IMG_0652_edit.jpg" border="0" alt="Macro CS"></a>


Common name: Chili Sponge, Strawberry Coral, Encrusting Leather Coral and Red Finger.

Type of Coral: Soft Coral

Reproduction: Budding

Coral Placement: loves flow, can be stuck between rock, or glued if attached to piece of LR. Vertical or horizontal. Best place is in shaded area, but can tolerate the light at bottom of tank.

Feeding: Brine, Zooplankton, DT, Cyclop-ezze.

Additional info: Chili Coral grows to a maximum of six inches in length. Chili Coral may be found in purple, yellow, orange and red colored varieties. Some what difficult to keep, requires food a few times a day, will stay open most of the day.

 

[Timeless1483]

Name: Tubastraea sp

Common Name: Sun Coral

Colors available: Black, Olive, Yellow, Red

Reproduction: planula release, budding, easily fragged.

Coral Placement: loves flow, can be glued or epxoed vertically or horizontally. Can also be placed in direct light, but lower in the tank.

Feeding: Brine, Mysis, Photoplankton, Cyclop-eese, krill, table shrimp-raw-Meaty foods in small bit size pieces.

Additional info: This is a very beautiful coral, easy to care for, but should be a decatitated hobbist. Daily feedings will make this coral trive, but keep an eye on nutrient export. Weekly water changes is a must.

 

[Timeless1483]

Scientific:Rhizotrochus typus

Family: Flabellidae

Common:Rhizotrochus typus, Rhizo

Colors: White, pink, red, orange, green

Reproduction: Budding-They send out tubes from skeleton, and new babies appear.

Coral Placement: Can be glued or expoxed to LR, and can be placed in substrate. Like gentle to moderate flow.

Feeding: This LPS coral loves Silverside, mysis, krill. Meaty foods. Small daily feeding is good, but will be find with weekly feedings(1 silverside)

Additional info: Not a great deal on the net, expensive ($100-$1000), normally from the waters of Japan, but not limited too. It is ok in light, but expands to 5 times it size at night, and after feeding.Rhizotrochus typus is a reef building coral, which has not formed a mutualistic symbiosis with zooxanthellae. Species from the Flabellidae family likely occur up to several kilometers in depth, in the Indo-Pacific region. They feed on plankton, detritus, crustaceans, fish and possibly dissolved organic molecules. R. typus is exported for the aquarium trade. These corals require ample feeding with crustaceans and small fish.

 

[Aquabacs]

Now that's what I am talking about!

 

[slapshot]

I'll jump in with this:

Family Name:Cirrhipathes spiralis

Common name: Wire coral, Spiral coral

Type Of Coral: Black Coral

Reproduction: Cuttings, the rest is unknown

Coral Placement: Prefers lots of flow, doesn't care about lighting. Cuttings can be epoxied to a structure piece.

Feeding: Eats just about anything. Seems to love cyclops and mysis.

Additional: Appears to be a great beginner coral. It is relatively new to the aquarium world so not a lot of information out there. I feed mine 3 to 4 times a week directly and it is always grabbing anything that floats by. In nature they are found in deep waters. They grow everywhere conditions are right from Florida to the indo pacific. The indo ones seem to have the best color. Ranging from purples to blues to yellow to a combination of all of the above. Used and sort after in Asian cultures and for jewelry. The calcium structure left behind in death is a hard black skeleton. It can be polished to a shinny black stone.

 

[Timeless1483]

Coral: Balanophyllia elegans

Common:Balanophyllia, orange cup coral, orange coral

Reproduction: Sexes are separate. The eggs are fertilized inside the mother's gastrovascular cavity and develop to planula larvae there. Planulae larvae usually settle within 10 cm of the parent

Coral Placement: Can be glued or expoxed to LR, likes moderate to fast flow.

Feeding: brine, zooplakton, mysis, Meaty foods.

Additional info:This coral catches prey primarily by nematocysts and spirocysts on its tentacles, but may open its mouth widely and capture some prey with the mesenteries inside its gastrovascular cavity . This species is known to be able to absorb dissolved organic carbon from the water. The polyps of this coral are solitary.

 

[fullmonti]

Thanks every one! This is going to help a lot of us that are trying to learn more about NPS. Also save you from answering the same questions over & over. Thanks & keep up the good work!

 

[Kungpaoshizi]

Boy these look interesting, thinking of starting some myself~
Are these then probably the best for those with only natural lighting?
(don't have any lighting, just the 3 gigantic windows in my apartment that let in TONS of sun all day long)
thanks

 

[owlbassboy]

wow what an amazing thread thanks everyone

 

[Skipper]

Thread stuck to the top!!!!