Sun Coral Spreading/Growth

[Shnabbles]

OK i know Sun Corals sprout new heads with the main colony.

But has anyone ever heard of heads just showing up on random rocks?

Now i have alittle aiptasia problem and when i first noticed these little things i thought they were aiptasia... but aiptasia doesnt have a yellow base right? for the most part they are clear and white right?

I have 4 or 5 very small dots about this size "o" showing up on rocks.. they are yellow and definently have some polyps growing on them...the polyps on them look more and more like sun coral polyps everytime i look at them..

am i nuts or what?

 

[paininthewrasse]

I know that I have read somewhere of someone w/ a similar case.. i think it was online.. but i believe i've also read in books that sun coral when fed well and everything is occasionally know to spawn in the aquarium... Don't hold me 2 my word I may have drempt the last part all up but for some reason I think I've heard that before..

 

[one8thscale]

I actually had the same thing happen to me. One even landed on one of my snails. I saw my sun coral spawn at night, releasing tiny pods.

Was your sun coral closed up for a while. Mine didn't come out for 2 weeks and I was worried, but then at around 3am I saw some stringy things with orange pods come out.

 

[claytonkelly2004]

does this happen only with tubrastreas or do dendros do this as well?

 

[dja1980]

Eric Borneman actually spoke of this at the 2006 IMAC. I forget what he called it, but he said that if you can figure out when the main coral does this, you can actually take the coral out and place it in a bowl and collect the seeds, after it release them, to grow in a propogation tank. He said the seeds look like rice that has the capability of swimming. Once your coral does this, it will consitently do it at the same time. This can happen with many different corals. Sorry I don't remember all the details, but hope this helps.

 

[Shnabbles]

Didnt notice any rice, but i got yellow dots all over the place lol, probally around 20, if i were to guess.

Do you think they will encrust on the rock they are on or do you think once they get larger i could break them off?

 

[dja1980]

I'm not sure, but I would imagine they would encrust. I've got one or two baby polyps in my Nano, but I never saw the "rice" either. I've been feeding the little one's hoping they would multiply, but so far they are still single polyps. I believe Eric said the "rice" is very, very small and can really only be seen if you pull the coral out of your tank and place it in a bowl of saltwater before you know it is about "spit the rice out". He said it usually happen at night usually around the same time each month. Again, sorry for the non-scientific terminology.

 

[Spidey]

When the spawning occurs, will the babies get sucked into the filters/etc?

 

[dja1980]

I would imagine they do get sucked into the filters. Eric said that the do have some propulsion capabilities, but I believe it is for this reason that he recommends that the coral be taken out of the tank before it spawns.

 

[Shnabbles]

for an update guys my sun coral definently did spawn in the tank... and the babies seem to look pretty good... if it happens again i hope to catch it.


i just dont know if the babies will grow.. and if they do grow if i will be able to break them off the rocks they are growing on