candy cane

[saltank]

I bought neon green candy cane frag (2 head) about a 6 weeks ago, so far no growth to speak of; what do these guys like; I have many softies, lps and an sps that have done excellent in the tank

46gal bowfront 206watt pc 10gal sump nitrate undetectable, alk 3.4, calcium 400 ph 8.4 temp 78 salinity 1.026 ( a little high perhaps)

weekly to bi-weekly 5 gal water changes with ro/di water

So what are your opinions on this coral, high light, low light, what flow do they prefer?

thanks

 

[simple]

same here, i also have had a candy cane for over a month and i dont see much growth either.

 

[Entacmaea]

I would give it a little time- you might not be able to see appreciable growth in 4-6 weeks. Feeding them at night (they extend tentacles and can be fed meaty foods or brine shrimp) will provide extra energy for them to grow. Adequate calcium levels are also needed.

Best, Peter

 

[Anonymous]

OK, I know a way to make these types grow so fast you will have to frag them away to the LFS 'cause they will take over your tank.

Feed 'em!

IME, these guys feed at night. They extend freaky cool long tentacles to capture food. Really, the next time you are up in the night when the tank lights are out, get a flashlight and check 'em out. Totally different coral. Seeing them fully extending their nemocysts is cool.

But, you can feed them in the day. It is difficult if you have fish, though. Turn off your pumps and load your turkey baster with something small> cyclopeeze, frozen rotifers, enriched brine shrimp, ect. Drop the food stuff onto the coral. If the coral is ready, you can hang out a bit and shoo away the fish while the coral consumes the food. Or you can put a empty strawberry cage on top of it for a bit. The coral will quickly "smell" food and consume food quickly when offered, the strawberry cage is very temporary.

I wonder if this would be a good video for YouTube?

I have found that feeding candycanes and other LPS really increases their growth. It seems they double in size over night. I really like watching a polyp divide.

 

[Anonymous]

46gal bowfront 206watt pc 10gal sump nitrate undetectable, alk 3.4, calcium 400 ph 8.4 temp 78 salinity 1.026 ( a little high perhaps)

thanks

Sounds about right. Salinity of 1.026 is good since it provides a good amount of trace elements.

As far as flow. It doesn't have to be strong flow, but enough where water can circulate around it. They are low maintenance corals and doesn't have to be placed on the top for light. Like what was mentioned, feeding will make them grow faster.

 

[mr_X]

OK, I know a way to make these types grow so fast you will have to frag them away to the LFS 'cause they will take over your tank.

Feed 'em!

IME, these guys feed at night. They extend freaky cool long tentacles to capture food. Really, the next time you are up in the night when the tank lights are out, get a flashlight and check 'em out. Totally different coral. Seeing them fully extending their nemocysts is cool.

But, you can feed them in the day. It is difficult if you have fish, though. Turn off your pumps and load your turkey baster with something small> cyclopeeze, frozen rotifers, enriched brine shrimp, ect. Drop the food stuff onto the coral. If the coral is ready, you can hang out a bit and shoo away the fish while the coral consumes the food. Or you can put a empty strawberry cage on top of it for a bit. The coral will quickly "smell" food and consume food quickly when offered, the strawberry cage is very temporary.

I wonder if this would be a good video for YouTube?

I have found that feeding candycanes and other LPS really increases their growth. It seems they double in size over night. I really like watching a polyp divide.

yep. feed em. misis and cyclo-peeze. sometimes i give them raw shrimp and scallops ground up. when i feed regularly, i see a growth rate of about a head or 2 a month.

 

[Anonymous]

I love they way they just LOOK bigger the next day! Candy canes especially.

I am going to try to track a head and see how long it takes to split. That would be a funky time lapse vid?

 

[mr_X]

wow...i'd like to see that too.

 

[saltank]

Thanks for the responses. I feed my corals about 2x week on average during the day/early evening - I have managed to feed one a plankton on occasion but they are usually not ready during the day

Yeah I have seen the tentacles out when my moon lights are on , they are cool, I just am usually not in the mood by 10pm to prepare and feed any critters....

thanks

 

[Anonymous]

wow...i'd like to see that too.

(rustles around on computer looking for pictures) Here ya go mrX, I took these over a three day period when mine was splitting. I fed all my LPS everyday and got great growth and budded off new colonies regularly. In fact, these pics are from 2005 and I have friends that still have daughter colonies. Sorry for the large file size but I wanted the detail in the pics.

 

[mr_X]

that is really something!
i've not seen anything like that dripping thing. mine just split. what happened with the fallen piece?

 

[Anonymous]

Each piece had a bit of skeleton that went with it. They sort of closed up and made new colonies. The main colony closed the gap in a day or so. I cut around the top of a food container (made sort of a ring) and buried it in the sand so the pieces would fall into it and not get blown around the tank by the pumps. Later I put some rock rubble in the ring and they settled themselves.

 

[cmm1970austin]

Thanks so much for posting the photos. My wife and I have kept a tank for a number of years. Our interest had waned until about 3 months ago. At that time, we began to rehabilitate our tank. We improved water quality, fed sensibly/regularly, and controlled nuisance growth in our 150 gal. tank. Long story short, is that we noticed tonight the "dripping" of candy cane polyps from our colony. We wondered it this was good or bad and this helped relieve our concern over what was happening to our 5 year old candy cane colony.

Regards,
Mike

 

[Anonymous]

glad to share them.