Let's see those Suncorals / Dendros / etc!

[melev]

Tubastrea / Dendrophyllia:
I enjoy feeding their little mouths each night, and I have something to look at when I'm in the sump area as this tank is behind my reef.

The tank has no lighting, since these corals don't need it. That keeps algae from taking hold, which is a perk. A tiny pump pushes water from the sump into the tank, a small powerhead creates flow in the tank, and it drains back into the sump. The tank is 9" x 9" x 9" with an internal overflow.

Yesterday evening, I had another rock given to me with some new suncorals to care for (upper left corner of this picture).



And from the front:





Also in this tank, I have a small Dendrophyllia colony. There are 4 major polyps and 4 smaller babies around the base.







And finally, this tank also has a few hitchhiker Orange Ball Anemones. They are in my reef, and some snuck in here.



So, let's see some of your corals too!

[warr40]

nice pics....what camera do u use?
i'm looking to get the d40x for christmas

[melev]

It is a Fuji S602Z - http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujis602z/

[seansod]

Here are my collection of sun corals.







Tony

[bradleyj]

Very nice Marc. I have a small colony of dendro and I just acquired a colony of Duncans that are really sweet.

[melev]

seansod - that is the pinkest Tubastrea I've ever seen! I'd love to see another picture when it is fully open, if possible.

Bradleyj - I'm not in on the Duncan craze, but do think they are from the same family. I almost suggested including them in this thread in the title. Great minds... Yours look nice and healthy. How often are you feeding your Dendros? You might cover that rock in no time with a bunch of TLC.

[bradleyj]

Marc, I've only had them for five days so I haven't really got a feeding schedule yet. When I feed my fish, they are right down the pathway, so I'm sure they are getting some of the scraps, but I do plan to hand feed once or twice a week.

[shaggydoo541]

Well since we are adding duncans I just got this one the other day from a local reefer. Only $15 but then again I only got one head. I try to feed all my LPS every other night.

[racerw]

Here is one of mine

[melev]

Niiiice. And look at all that coralline.

[seansod]

Originally posted by melev
seansod - that is the pinkest Tubastrea I've ever seen! I'd love to see another picture when it is fully open, if possible.

These are the only 2 I could find that were not blurry. I have since traded the coral so I can not take any more pictures. The coral is still thriving and the same color (I visit it often)





Thanks
Tony

[bradleyj]

Took this tonight, I thought it was a nice picture of them.

["Umm, fish?"]

[melev]

Andy, that's a suncoral? What is it eating? I've noticed it in your avatar many times but never asked about it.

["Umm, fish?"]

Yep, it's a sun coral. Eric B. told me that those were larvae on their way out.

Here's a little farther along in the sequence after some food in the water made the colony come alive:



I tried to transfer the coral to another container to capture some of the larvae, but that seemed to be too stressful for the mother polyp and the process got messed up. But, I did later find some daughter polyps, so reproduction must have worked. One of my babies got to multiple polyps before a tank crash took them out.

One of the babies:

[melev]

That is really cool that you were there to observe it. I've only had one polyp somehow land elsewhere in my reef, and it has been in that spot for close to two years and done very little growth-wise. If there are two polyps there now, I'd be surprised.

["Umm, fish?"]

Well, the Tubastrea was front-and-center on the tank and you just couldn't miss that blue against the orange. Of course, the blue was likely an artifact of the 20,000K Radiums, but still.

How's the flow around the juvenile? The one that really took off for me and put on three polyps in just a month or so had settled right under the lip of a rock (no algae competition) right where the outflow from my return pump hit the glass and headed down to swirl around the lip of the rockwork. So, it was getting a ton of flow and a lot of food because of the flow pattern. But, any of the juveniles I found that had to compete with any algae lost quickly.

[melev]

Here's the picture of the little guy, way back when. I checked on it tonight, and it is still very small since I never feed it when it is open (late night).

["Umm, fish?"]

Well, it looks like it's in a pretty good place. Is there any way you could get it any more flow in the evenings?

[melev]

I think solid food would be better, but it is in a bad spot. The fact that it has stayed alive for 2 years is interesting to me.

[Rosseau]

Great coral and shots everyone.

Umm, Fish?... I've noticed your avatar before. Very cool to see the full res.

Do you use the canon 100mm 2.8?

["Umm, fish?"]

Rosseau--Thanks! I do use that lens and did for that shot. I actually use that lens for just about everything, but I'm lusting after the 300mm/f2.8 at the moment. I just can't quite justify the $4,000 expense. But, I sure want the extra distance for outdoor animal shots.

Marc--Interesting? In that you must have a pretty good amount of nighttime plankton going?

[melev]

Originally posted by "Umm, fish?"
Marc--Interesting? In that you must have a pretty good amount of nighttime plankton going?

Considering how they need food, I don't know how it has stayed alive all this time. I'd have to turn off all the circulation to get a little food on these stray polyps, without having fish swoop in to steal it.

[Caleb Kruse]

Heres mine

[melev]

Awesome; that coral looks stunning and full of healthy tissue.