Coral ID, placement, feeding, etc

[bubblybabs]

9 month old 29 gal nano with fish and corals...

I had a mini tank disaster and was so upset over it that a friend of mine actually went out and bought me some corals... Problem is, since I wasn't at the fish store with her I don't know how to care for these (and, to be honest, I wouldn't have bought these for myself but I can't turn them down after she was so nice to get them for me and I know they cost a chunk of money, they are "growing" on me and I'm starting to like them)... She's not into salt water tanks so she just bought "something big and colorful", "colorful", and "something cool looking"...

One is called a maze coral, it's nice but I don't know where to put it... Looking online it looks as if it's something I need to seperate from other corals... Is this correct? And it looks as if I have it in too fast moving water area, does it need moderate moving water? Looks to me like it needs water moving fairly fast in order to clean it off... I think the picture shows it with it's colonies open so this is a good sign I think...

Now, the yellow leather (she said it's called Devils Hand)... It's ugly but it's colorful... Looking online I think I may have it placed correctly... Can it have fairly fast water movement? I have it placed close to the maze coral though and I think that is bad - the maze coral is going to be moved since it's smaller and easier to relocate...

How do I feed these? Do I put food on top of them? Do I use large food or small food?

Below are the two corals together.... The maze coral is just plunked down somewhere for now...




And I'm not sure what the other one is... It's got a red outside and greenish inside... I have no idea where to put it at all... Looks like it needs to face upward and on rocks but if I do that it'll be too close to the surface and lights... The red color makes me think it shouldn't be so close to the lights but maybe I'm wrong... And does it need high or low water flow? It's got a mouth so I know how to feed it but I find if it's on its side the food falls off so that is why I thought perhaps it needs to be facing upward...

Pix of it on top of the rock an inch below the water surface... Water flow is sort of on the slow side....



Pix of it on the rocks a little more in the shade but on its side making it hard to feed...



Thanks, any help would be appreciated...

Babs

[betamed]

Both are brain corals (LPS) The maze is also called favia and the other is an open brain. They are fairly hardy and do not need a lot of light or much flow. Both of them will do well at the bottom of a tank if the lighting is decent and like to be fed meaty foods like krill or most any chunk of seafood. they also prefere to be in sand or on the bottom as rocks can irritate them.

[jenajet]

Yep both would prefer the sand. When they expand they can get fairly big and their tissue would rub on the rock and it would tick them off. They are usually nocturnal and extend sweepers at night to feed. They will be much bigger at night as well. Very nice additions!

[bubblybabs]

OK, the maze one goes on the sand and the one that has red in it goes on the sand too, right? The red one is an open brain? Sure looks different from my green brain then but at least I know I can care for it...

The favia, can it be placed under an overhang then? Looking online it seems they don't require much light due to their being "in the depths" a bit...

The yellow one, is it OK on the rocks?
[edit]Ooops, just saw that a leather isn't considered an LPS coral, will put my question in that part of the forum! Sorry, I'm still learning about corals and the different types...[/edit]

Thanks for the info, much appreciated!

Babs

[jenajet]

No problem! I am learning too! Nice leather btw. Yeah it is fine in the rock. The open brain you probably want to get it in as much shade as possible. He looks ticked! It always take forever for my lps to adapt to my tanks. So far the best thing I can do for them is put them in cave openings and cut back lighting period. Usually they are happy in 2 or 3 days. After a couple weeks I move them out in the open more but you still don't want them in too bright of an area.

[bubblybabs]

Originally Posted by jenajet

No problem! I am learning too! Nice leather btw. Yeah it is fine in the rock. The open brain you probably want to get it in as much shade as possible. He looks ticked!

He does? How can you tell? What should it look like normally?

Babs

[betamed]

I've seen much worse, but you can tell the coral is retracted a bit. if you look at the perimeter of the open brain you can see the ridges of the underlying skeleton and the color is a bit pale. Read your other post about the devils hand. It is not picky about lighting mine like good flow though.

[Gary C]

I recently got a brain/maze/favia as well. Found your thread when I was looking for information about how to take care of it. Here is a photo of mine.



One thing I don't understand. If you are supposed to keep the corals separated because of territorial/aggressive behavior...how do the guys do it who have tanks just FULL of corals. If these favias have tenticles that reach out 12-18" They can just about reach all the way across to the back of the tank.

This guy was on sale for about $20 at the memorial day sale at the LFS..he's as big as the palm of my hand about 5" across. Hope he does okay!

[tellycoleman]

ok cool another person from nashville . where did she get those corals.
not many local fish stores that cater to saltwater & reef hobyist. ive found 2. are there more let me know their location?

[luvmylo]

most of the coral you see touching are not aggressive. I'm not sure of 12-18 in sweeper tentacles I would think you would be ok with 3-4 inches of separation.

[betamed]

Many corals of similar species can touch in fact almost all soft corals can't sting anything. I have many LPS and softies touching without issues as well, but I keep an eye on them just in case. My favia is a little different than the ones pictured, but I had some shrooms that actually needed to be removed because they were growing next too/on and shading it. I don't keep many sps, but my monti half killed a soft coral before I moved it...

[Casanova1016]

nice pieces you had great advice

[jenajet]

Nice maze! No soft corals don't sting but they can be aggressive as well. They tend to use chemical warfar. My hammer fell into my purple mushrooms while I was away and when I found it the shrooms had wiped out two of the heads that where directly on the shroom. Just research and secure things well. If something has sweepers then yes make sure you give it plenty of room to not sting surrounding corals. Even if there are no sweepers do your best to make sure corals don't fall into other corals.