Open Brain information (Trachyphyllia geoffroyi)

ewaldm

New member
I'm interested in what people think of these corals. Experience, information, and pictures welcome!

Thanks
 
They are generally easy corals to keep and care for.

I have kept them successfully under VHO, and under MH lighting. Generally, they like medium flow. Feeding with chunks of fresh meaty seafood (scallop,shrimp,et cetera) can be done when the feeder tentacles are out, but it's not necessary.
 
Pretty much what iCam said. Most coral books,Borneman's aquarium corals comes to mind, have a good section on their care. Some like lower light so if it doesn't look happy try moving it into the shade.

Feeding:
Most people that have success with them feed every 2-3 days. They do need to be directly fed. Most do this 30-40 minutes after lights out or in the morning before your lights come on or whenever the tentacles come out. Feeding after/before your lights are on will reduce the chances of the food getting stolen by fish/shrimp/etc. The simplest way to do this is turn of the flow and use a turkey baster. I feed mine mysis, cyclopeeze, and formula 1 flake. But I have seen pics of larger ones taking pieces of silverside.

Placement:
During the day they will inflate quite a bit and if they are on something hard and abrasive like rock they may wear away the flesh on their underside. For this reason most people put them in the sand or on a BB.
 
My LFS said that if you have hermit crabs that they can kill a open brian. I was planning on getting one until I found that out. I have like 3 dozen hermit crabs (unless the Mantis shrimp is hungry).
 
ram6519,
I suppose hermit crabs could kill an open brain. But I have never heard of this happening nor have I seen it in my tank, I have several hermit crabs in my tank. What could happen is that in an attempt to get at the food you fed the open brain they damage its mouth. I would say this is a potential problem with all crabs/shrimp but not an actual problem if you keep them fed.
 
I've never had a problem with hermits...other than somethimes they try and steal food from it. However, I did have a small heard of sexy shrimp that tore the hell out of my green brain.
 
Mine is only on 30watts of lights, about 10" from the light and he is always happy and has grown alot in the past 2 months. He just catches food when I feed my fish, they are very easy to care for, just make sure nothing is around it that might poke and irritates it's body.
 
i had a red trich, easy to keep, had it under MH, it was the centerpiece of my tank hand fed it brine shrimp, nut i did have a peppermint shrimp that liked to dig into its mouth alot, so the shrimp went
 

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