Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get certain corals to keep their sweepers in? I’ve got a galaxia that I picked up from Andy (4n4sd4) a while back and man does this guy throw his sweepers out. Only zoos are in its immediate reach and they seem to try to eat the sweeper because I see it stuck to the zoo and the zoos mouth closed around it every now and then. Doesn’t seem like much harm is being caused, but I want to be sure I’m not missing something. Anyway…
Why do they send out the sweepers? Looking for food? Smell another coral near by and want to clear its spreading path?
my galaxia has always let the sweepers out. often 3 inches or so. im pretty sure its defending its teritory from other corals. those sweepers sting pretty good. looks cool. like little green eyeballs on flourescent green fishing line.
Sweepers are a corals self defense mechanism. They put sweepers out to prevent anything from settling down next to it and out competing for food / resources.
My galaxia also leaves it’s sweepers out (some times up to 4-5 inches) all the time. I just make sure not to put anything within 6 or so inches of it just to be safe.
They are out to keep other corals from growing over them and shading them out. It takes a lot of metabolic energy to put out the sweepers so often times they won’t do it too aggressively if they don’t find anything to hit. If they sweepers come across something like a zoa though it will put a lot of energy into killing off the competition. I wouldn’t expect the Galaxia or the zoas to grow if they are fighting each other and I would expect the Galaxia to win in the long run.
Galaxia is one of the most notorious corals for doing this. As Craig said, pretty much all you can do is keep things far away from it. A galaxia in a nano tank may be the only think you can manage to put into the nano tank.