open brain

[chrissycomeau]

I recently got a neon green open brain. Been in my 40g for over a week now. This morning I noticed it has puffed right up!!! It has never been so big!! Is this normal? It looks as if its going to explode!! Parameters are as follows:

Calcium-420
alkalinity-4mEq/L (200ppm)
salinity- 1.021
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates- 10
Ammonia- 0
Ph- 8.2

 

[chrisstie]

When mine is super puffy I take it as a good sign

Being the opposite of puffy is generally not so great (except at night when its deflated and "sleeping" ;p

 

[acrodave]

Yeah its fine i have seen some were i work get like 5x as big as they usually are. We had a tank next to the window and in the morning they would do it as the sun was coming in

 

[edandsandy]

Here is a picture of mine.

at night

sailfing tank always wants his picture taken.

 

[chrissycomeau]

K thx everyone! Good to know its ok!!! I feed it brine shrimp every couple of days. Is this sufficient? Also, is there typically not tenticles on the outer portion of the open brains? I have never seen tenticles on mine!!!

 

[spellbound]

I have never seen tenticles on my neon green open brain either. I didn't know they might have them until I purchased a chocolate brown colored open brain coral and saw them come out the first time I fed the fish their mysis shrimp. I've been looking closely since then and still haven't seen any. I used to feed mine squid and shrimp, but when I started feeding it small pieces of silver side it quit eating anything I offered. I haven't feed it anything now for about two months and it is still doing great. Seems to get what it needs from the filter feeding foods I add for the corals.

 

[Runfrumu]

give them some mysis and they swell like mad. Mine used to have his tentecles out at night but I guess he learned that food enters the tank during the day and now keeps them out during the day some too.

 

[elegance coral]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10831772#post10831772 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chrissycomeau
K thx everyone! Good to know its ok!!! I feed it brine shrimp every couple of days. Is this sufficient? Also, is there typically not tenticles on the outer portion of the open brains? I have never seen tenticles on mine!!!

There are no tentacles on the outer portion of open brains. The tentacles are located in the ring that surrounds their mouths. They come out most often at night. Brine shrimp is not a good food source. Brains can live long healthy lives with little in the way of food. They do seem to grow faster if fed small chunks of shrimp or fish.

In my opinion open brains that are puffy like the one edandsandy posted are healthy and happy right where they are. Brains that swell up to the point that their polyp is round and smooth like half of a ball are most likely suffering from not enough light. Brains that retract tight to their skeletons may be suffering from to much light. There may be other factors that can cause these reactions, but in my experience, lighting is the biggest culprit.

 

[chrissycomeau]

Chop up some shrimp that you can buy at local grocery store?I have some in my freezer, I'll try feeding that to him. He does eat the brine shrimp though, but if its not healthy enough for him then I guess I'll switch to the shrimp. As far as lighting goes, I thought they like the sand? Would it be alright to put some substrate on a rock and lay him on that closer to the top or mid of my tank?

 

[elegance coral]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10846376#post10846376 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chrissycomeau
Chop up some shrimp that you can buy at local grocery store?I have some in my freezer, I'll try feeding that to him. He does eat the brine shrimp though, but if its not healthy enough for him then I guess I'll switch to the shrimp. As far as lighting goes, I thought they like the sand? Would it be alright to put some substrate on a rock and lay him on that closer to the top or mid of my tank?

These are two of my brains on rocks. While it may be safer to keep them on the sand, I believe that the proper lighting is far more important. If you can find a secure spot where the coral will not fall and has room to expand, it will do fine on rocks. Just don't place them near sharp objects that may puncture them.

I wouldn't use shrimp from the grocery store. Most of it is full of phosphate that is used as a preservative. You can buy food from your LFS or find a place that sells only fresh seafood. It is easy to test for. If your aquarium water tests negative for phosphate you can do a test and pour the test water on a piece of shrimp. If it doesn't change colors you are fine. If it quickly changes color I would not feed it to my tank.

Just my opinion. Good luck.

 

[chrissycomeau]

K thx elegance coral. I'll place him up higher for a few days and see if he does the same thing. I do believe you're right though. Its the lighht hes reaching for!!