Planulating Tubastraea

[jd474]

Does anyone know what age Tubastraea begin planulating, and roughly how many planulae they should produce? I have some younger colonies, and have been finding newly settled corals, but only a very small number. It is possible they are being removed through the filtration, or only a few planulae are being released.

 

[stunreefer]

Filtration will certainly remove the vast majority, unless prepared for the spawning event. I'm not sure on age or exact number. I've seen only a few larvae, to several hundred larvae released from the same coral during different spawning events.

 

[jd474]

I like the idea of a few hundred larvae a lot more. It's possible, but I keep fly screen over the surface skimmer so the garden eels in the tank can't find their way to the pump impeller. I think it is probably too small for the larvae to get through, as well. I have considered caging the oldest colony, so maybe I'll give that another thought.

 

[MarineSniper]

In my experience, suns will spawn based on how much they're feed, vs any other factors in our tanks. When my nps tank was just started, I fed the 2 sun colonies nightly and had, literally hundreds of "baby" polyps. They were all over the tank and I had a few colonies growing upside down on overhangs. As the collection grew and I had to cut feedings back, it's a rare event to see any, unfortunately. Too many corals in there now, to feed daily