Ok so, recently I’ve begun my endevour into the wonderful world of coral. I’ve been doing my research as much as possible and preparing to take the plunge at the frag swap. So yesterday I needed to go to the my LFS to pick up some salt and I was in the mood to treat myself to a fish since my tank has been barren with the exception of one small damsel so just to be sure, I checked all of my water parameters. They were spot on. Well I got to the store and saw $10 frags. I asked an employee about them and he said they were awesome coral. Easy to maintain as long as you spot feed them once every two to three weeks at least. He said they require a little flow and medium to high lighting, all of which I can provide. I couldn’t resist, so I bought it. My problem is, now i can’t remember what it’s called because it wasn’t marked on the tank and he mentioned it once briefly. so does anyone recognize this little guy?
That is a Duncan
THAT’S IT! I couldn’t remember what he said for the life of me, but i knew it began with a D. haha. abcd
Yayyy to first coral!! I hope it’s as easy and “f***ing awesome” as he said it was. haha. Checked on it this am and it’s opened up nicely in the tank.
Good luck with it. congrats on your 1st frag!!! GolfC
Nice grab! welcome to coral addiction!
Its your first frag, so just keep in mind, and do some research on treating your coral for any unwanted hitchikers in the future if you haven’t already. Not quite so bad with the lps as you just picked up, but pay attention when you start getting into sps… acros in particular, some things you just don’t want to learn the hard way.
Sounds like you’ll be visiting that $10 section quite often ( you sounded just a bit excited) so i thought i’d throw that advice out there :TWOCENTS
good luck!
Haha, I’ll definitely be bringing a basket to the frag swap. As for the acro, i’ve read enough about them to be a little hesitant to keep one, as much as I like them. I think it’s going to be quite a while til i go to a coral like that. I feel like that’s major leagues and I’m only AA. haha
That’s a great mentality to have in this hobby
too many people just “give it thee old college try” … and if it dies “oh well”
its nice to see somebody playing it safe smart :
:
[quote=“saltcreep, post:7, topic:5182”]
That’s a great mentality to have in this hobby
too many people just “give it thee old college try” … and if it dies “oh well”
its nice to see somebody playing it safe smart ::[/quote]
haha maybe if I had money to burn, i’d have a harder time fighting the urge. haha. I’d like to think I’d still be wise about it though. I don’t like killing things.
Congrats! Duncans were one of my first photosynthetic LPS corals.(I believe I purchased one of them and a candy cane at the same time.)
Here is one of mine:
Duncan coral
Tip: They like to eat. Man do they like to eat. In my experience you can get 10 times the growth rate just by feeding them. (or vice versa I’ve been too busy to feed mine the last 4 months and their growth rate had been cut to 1/10 or less!)
Congrats once again on your first. To many more!
:Welcome) to the addiction.
One of my favorites! Just watch your hermit crabs around it, one of mine decided the beautiful Duncan looked yummy! He got traded in LOL. Working on my second one now.
Out of curiosity what color was it’s legs FAFNF? Did it cause serious damage? Was the coral recently fed? I have always been interested in the different species of hermit crabs and their varying “reefsafeness”.
We thought it was a blue leg, not sure though. It was very large maybe golfball sized when we took it to fish bowl. Killed my duncan, and a torch, both we still frag sized so not fed individually yet.
Maybe black legs with blue knuckles? Just curious.
[quote=“FAFNF, post:12, topic:5182”]
We thought it was a blue leg, not sure though. It was very large maybe golfball sized when we took it to fish bowl. Killed my duncan, and a torch, both we still frag sized so not fed individually yet.[/quote]
I saw that golfball size hermit crab as well at the FB. Terry said that 2 person bought it and both brought it back because it was eating their corals. Jason (beadlocked450r) was one and I guess Tiffiny you were the other person. Jon, it was large red legs. If I can find pic I’ll post it up.
Here you go. It looks something like this: Dardanus megistos White-spot Fuzzy Red Legged Hermit
Yes that little bastard ate 2 clams! The clams we’re alive and healthy and he was hungry!he never ate my Duncan’s just the clams
Yup, that was probably him… I don’t really remember what color he was, just his size. So glad I got rid of him, told them what happened when I turned him in. He got his own tank! LOL hoping he ends up in a FWLR only tank…
When we returned him he was in his own tank also,they need to let people know he isn’t reef safe
They have an Article in this month Coral Magazine about one called a home for Helmet, they say they grow huge and are one of the few hermits that can actively hunt and catch fish.
[quote=“Hudzon, post:18, topic:5182”]
They have an Article in this month Coral Magazine about one called a home for Helmet,[/quote]
That was a pretty cool read.
[quote=“beadlocked450r, post:17, topic:5182”]
they need to let people know he isn’t reef safe[/quote]
Reef safe is not an easy term to define at all. Actually it almost couldn’t be more complicated. Some animals are safe when they are small and shift diets when they get older. Some animals are safe 99% of the time, but then one crazy individual decides to eat something even though it doesn’t taste good. Many animals will be driven to eat just about anything with out the proper diet. Some Centropyge angelfish such as your angels will be “reef safe” in an SPS only system, but then eat zoanthids which most marine animals don’t find palatable. I could go on and on.
Hermits are typically scavengers and eat what they can find. If you’re not over feeding and don’t have a ton of food on the ground it may be tough to find food in a clean aquarium. Let’s say a pellet of food randomly lands on a duncan coral or a or other “LPS”. Just a tinny thin layer of tissue stands between that hermit crab and the food it can see and smell…
Most hermits are considered “reef safe with caution”. Many clam fanatics won’t allow them in their aquariums. Ron Shimek one of the hobbyist most published invertebrate experts claims hermit crabs are not good for anything in a marine aquarium except for eating vermetid snails. I like to have a couple in an aquarium larger then 75g and 4-6 in a tank larger then 250g and typically stick to “Tri-color” or blue leg hermits and scarlets.
All this being said if you go into an LFS and they sell you a White-spot “Fuzzy Red Legged Hermit” and don’t tell you they aren’t reef safe then either they’ve been given the impression you have a fish only system, or they don’t know they’re not safe, or they don’t care. If you decide it is the one of the later two… there are other LFS. “Support your LFS” doesn’t say enough. Support your good LFS.
[quote=“Gordonious, post:9, topic:5182”]
Congrats! Duncans were one of my first photosynthetic LPS corals.(I believe I purchased one of them and a candy cane at the same time.)
Here is one of mine:
Duncan coral
Tip: They like to eat. Man do they like to eat. In my experience you can get 10 times the growth rate just by feeding them. (or vice versa I’ve been too busy to feed mine the last 4 months and their growth rate had been cut to 1/10 or less!)
Congrats once again on your first. To many more!
:Welcome) to the addiction. [/quote]
I’ve seen this just about everywhere so i decided to give feeding it a go. Well, i think i might be doing something wrong. One person I talked to said they’ll take the meat pretty aggressively and to use a turkey baster to feed them. So I tried it but i think I may be doing it wrong because when I try to feed it, it just closes up on me. I’m trying to feed it as gently as possible, but it doesnt seem to want to take it. I figured maybe it wasn’t feeding because it was still new to the environment and wasn’t completely comfortable in the tank, but it’s wide open and it’s coloring is great and it looks healthy as can be. any tips to feeding these guys?