maze brain coral

[buzzer]

I bought a maze brain coral last weekend and is my first hard coral (pics in gallery) and it looks fine but am not seeing any change , are you supposed to see sweeper tentacles at dusk or is it too early to see that due to the coral getting used to the surroundings.
Are you supposed to feed these as I see conflicting advice from different people on this site regarding this.
I have him about 8 inches from the water surface with 150 watts of t5 lighting and he is in low-medium flow, I have not moved him since adding to tank as I know most corals are not happy with that.
All params are fine and the tank is just coming up to 2 years old.
Any advice welcome.

 

[GMGQ]

I think he would be fine on the bottom. Did you slowly acclimate it before moving it up? There should be sweeper tentacles, but it does take some time for it to adjust to a new system.

I got a favia brain a little while ago, and I started noticing sweepers coming out of one side of it, about 4-5 days after I got it.

 

[xdusty6920]

yeah sweepers often take time to start showing themselves. my maze took months before it started shooting them out. ive had a favia take a year before i ever saw a single sweeper. that long is uncommon but i wouldnt panic if you dont see them. give it some time. but when you do watch out, they are super long and can reach alot further then youd think.

 

[InvertLover]

I wouldn't worry until a week or more. So is there something wrong with my favia? It put out sweepers the night I got it. Although I've noticed if I target feed it, it tends to have more feeders and fewer, if any sweepers.

 

[Mrs.kbmdale]

Ditto to InvertLover. The night we got our pineapple brain it had feeders going. And ANY time I feed the tank, they come out. I feed it MEATY foods - silversides, squid, and table shrimp from walmart - at LEAST once a week, more often than not though I feed 3 times a week and the rest of the time it gets what it gets. I do this with all of my LPS, ever since I got them. I've NEVER ONCE seen a sweeper tentacle, and I have frogspawn, trumpets, candycanes, fungia plate, pineapple brain.

If you have any frozen foods like above or cyclopeeze or brine shrimp or something then thaw some out, grind it up to release more flavor and juices. If you have actinics, then about 15 min. before the main lights(white lights) go out put about a 1/4 of the food in the tank along with most of the juices, then wait for the main lights to go out. Don't sit there and watch, if you do I swear it will take forever. :lol: Anyway, once you know the main lights have gone off go back to the tank. Your brain should have a zillion feeder tentacles. Then spot feed it, gently spraying the food over the tentacles. If this doesn't work after at least 3 tries, then I would start worrying. I would also double check your params.

Hope all works out

 

[buzzer]

Thanks all
Tonight I took your advice and low and behold out came the feeding tentacles, I fed cyclopeeze .
Can you feed zooplex and phytoplankton or is it too small?

 

[Mrs.kbmdale]

zooplex and phyto are more for the whole tank. I dose phyto 2-4 times a week, depending on time constraints. But I also have a lot of filter feeders.

Or, if it will make you feel better [] you can mix a small amount of either or both to the food you are going to spot feed it. I also do this once every couple of weeks. Just to make myself feel better :lol:

Just don't forget that you really should feed it a MEATY food at least once a week. (Brine shrimp, unless freshly hatched, are the equivelant of potatoe chips) Oh yeah, make sure you always keep you calcium at or above 420ppm. Hard corals need the calcium for their skeletons.

Glad it worked for you and all is well now

Brianna:rollface: