Ricordea florida biotope

[drawman]

I have been wanting to setup a ricordea florida biotope for several years now and I finally have the resources to do so.

My queston is for people that have seen these coral in the wild. What other specific species (fish, inverts, other coral, algae) are they commonly seen with? I have never been diving in florida but I have seen a few pictures of them in the wild. Thank you for any help you can give me.

Tim

 

[drawman]

I was thinking of pederson cleaner shrimp but I have no idea if they even live in the same area as ricordea....I just noticed that they were for sale on eTropicals, but i have my doubts about them being found near ricordea.

 

[drawman]

bump, anyone?

 

[betamed]

I've seen them with mixed in with zoas. There were some diving pics posted in the FMAS forum

 

[drawman]

I knew they were common with zoas but I am a little cautious of them because I will have no idea where the zoas are from.

Is it FMAS.org?

Thanks for the help

 

[drawman]

I just checked it out and I think all the pic threads were old and have been deleted already.

 

[lancer99]

According to Tullock's "Natural Reef Aquariums," they are found on the fore reef, with Condylactis, Bartholomea, and Phymanthus anemones; Pseudopterogorgia, Plexaura, and Briareum gorgonians, Discosoma neglecta, Zoanthus sociatus, Palythoa caribaeorum, P. tuberculosa, P. grandis, Parazoanthus swiftii, Arrow crabs, Banded Coral Shrimp, Golden-banded Coral Shrimp, and Peppermint Shrimp. For fish, he mentions Royal Gramma, Blue Chromis, and Blue Hamlet.

HTH,
-R

 

[drawman]

Awesome! Thanks for the help, I may look into getting that book just to check it out.

 

[drawman]

Does it mention macroalgae or seagrasses?

 

[FroggyFeet]

Allot of florida is seagrass beds I believe. I don't know the correct varieties found in the habitat though. Tullock is a really good author with some staunch advice!

 

[fazgood]

Ken at Sealifeinc.net collects his own stuff from down in the keys. I have nothing but good things to say about his service and his livestock. He might also be able to help in your design.

Faz

 

[drawman]

Nice. Thanks for the link!

 

[Magnus6208]

I have order twice from Sealifeinc.net with nothing but good things to say as well.

 

[drawman]

I'm curious, what did you get from them? Any rics? If so, what colors?

 

[fazgood]

I got some orange, pink, rainbow, green and blue. THey were about 1 to 1.5 inches across and opened to about 2 inches in a few days. ALso got a warty calimorph that ended up being a cool blue/ maroon color. I also got the blue zoas and they look like some of the really expensive ones on the for sale board. The fish also arrived alive and well. Had them about 8 months now. Ken is a great guy and he and his daughter do some amazing work in the Keys tyring to rebuild the reefs. Check out the videos he has REEF LINKS at the bottom right and it makes you feel good that you can support people like him.

Faz

 

[fazgood]

A few pics from when they arrived. They have grown out a bit now.

Green and blue. The Blue split into 3 shortly after they settled in



+++++

Orange. Bad Piture

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Pink Ric

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Pretty sure this was the rainbow. Might have it confused with a pink

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Warty Calimorph

Faz

 

[atzak]

that warty shroom is cool

 

[deacon hemp]

Heres my attempt or version of the florida theme,im getting 5 or 6
warty shrooms this week.

[/IMG]

 

[FroggyFeet]

Nice little sexy shrimp you have there!

 

[velvetelvis]

Nice! Please keep posting photos & updates... I love biotope aquaria, but so few people seem to do them.

Also, I'm from Florida, so it's nice to see someone paying tribute to my home state. I'd love to do a FL biotope someday myself, but it will have to wait till I have more room (and money).