Diploastrea...

[Birdlady]

I recently acquired a Diploastrea frag, assuming it was like other LPSs that I have. I have candycanes, lobos, acans, frogspawn and hammers.

I have never seen feeder tentacles on the diploastrea, so should it have them? It appears fleshy and healthy. Does it have different requirements than other similar lps's?

Thanks for any advice!

[Typo]

at night it has sweeper tentacles. they can be quite long.

[Birdlady]

Have not seen those either....It is only about a 6 polyp frag. I am just concerned I have not seen it eat. I target feed all my LPS coral....'cause it is fun and I have yet to hit on anything that makes this guy eat. Should I be worried?

[Smo]

Look at it at night when it's been dark in the tank/house for quite some time. They are a VERY aggresive coral and will kill most other corals within a 3" - 4" path. My Diploastrea heliopora has 60 - 70 heads on it. It killed off 4 heads of my branching hammer that was only 3" away. That's when I learned about the aggresiveness of this not so common coral.

I have attached a photo of the coral at night with it's sweepers out. Sorry for the brightness, this shot was taken with flash only in total darkness. It's hard to focus, set the white balance, and shoot in total darkness so as to not disturb the coral too much.



The tentacles are transparent and hard to see on a light colored background. They are waving in the current and extend 3" - 4" out.

BTW, no need to target feed it. I dose my tank with ESV Phytoplankton twice a week. Make sure your calcium levels are about 400 - 440. My Diploastrea heliopora has sprouted 5 new heads in the past couple of weeks. It's a very slow growing coral.

Daytime shot the day I got it:

[Birdlady]

Nice pix! Thanks! I have checked late at night...I like to watch my insideout candy cane!

I also have frogspawn and hammer, and haven't seen any sweepers on those either. I don't have very many corals yet, so perhaps they are not detecting threating corals yet.

Thanks for the advice. I do dose phyto and liquid life as well as meatier foods for the fish and lobo, so it should be fine then.

[Smo]

Isn't that candy cane just insane at night?

I too have frogspawn and hammer. The frogspawn has sweepers at night, but they are longer ones than the diploastrea has. Haven't seen any on my hammer though.

Your dosing regimen should be just fine for the diploastrea.

On a side note here, my diploastrea ate 3 blood worms today. Just like zoanthids and palythoa do. Their heads kinda closed up around the bloodworm and then sucked it down like a string of spaghetti; but v e r y s l o w l y!

In case you are wondering what the corallites look like up close, here's a shot:

[Birdlady]

Yup, that is what mine look like!

I love your avatar, BTW....Clash of the Titans..right?

[Smo]

Originally posted by Birdlady

I love your avatar, BTW....Clash of the Titans..right?

Yup-per!!
One of my favorite movies of all time.

Thanks!