New Chili Coral....

[carym]

Well picked it up this afternoon, been in the tank for a couple of hours.

[dobejazz]

Beautiful Cary!

[ChilisREasy]

WoW ! that ones larger than the one i have ! very nice peice. keep us updated on its progress looks like its already starting to extend its polyps, check it agian about 2 hours after lights off, i garuntee it will be in bloom then target feed it.

[carym]

Thanks, I will try and do an update on this every so often....MH go off in about hour and a half and then by about 9:30 its only moonlights so I will check then....

[ChilisREasy]

plus this is a good addition to my chili coral study thread, now i can see the progress of a healthy Nepthyigorgia in a MH lighted & Skimmed System ! so i would like to link this thread to that one,if you dont mind. so that people are 100% aware of your progress

[carym]

Sure no problem....it is going to be interesting...I am not 100% sure of exact placement...I like where it is at but I don't like how it is sitting in the crevice... Right now as I type this it has kind of layed down but it looks like all the polyps are open...(well from about 10 feet away anyway)... do you think the coral gets softer when it is ready to feed? That was my first thought anyway....

[ChilisREasy]

yes the coral gets softer because it sucks in over 30% of its body weight in water, it can extend to over 2x its normal size if the water flow if strong enough. some times when the chili lays down, its encrusting onto another rock. like a xenia would, thats how the one i bought done in the LFS. it just may be trying to attach itself to a solid rock base.

be sure to get large close up pictures

[Reefyone]

You, probably, already seen that: chili coral is ready to eat - on the left, starting to open - at the right:


It seems to me, that when they are start to open - depends on the their origin: some of mine opened at 3-4 PM, and other, vertical - in the early morning. By the way, chilis, similar to your, in my tanks prefer upright position, and only vertical one tolerated hanging upside down, wide-shaped unattached itself eventually.



This, the big one, when was on the bottom, slowly raised itself for a feeding:


After hanging upside down, had possibility to expand all branches:


but with time the trunk become longer and longer, until the coral touched the bottom, then I moved it to the bottom again.
Just feed it with mouth-sized food, like Cyclop-eeze or Golden Pearls, and a lot - to keep these hungry mouths fed

Good luck!

[Sndwave80]

Nice find Cary!

[ChilisREasy]

hey reefyone, i just noticed something, your chili's are different, that one has red bands around its polyps, where the other one dont & neither does mine.

[Reefyone]

Checked photos - every from the 4 slightly different kinds, that I have, has it, only seen with magnification:


These two are closest to yours and carym's:



Full shot of one of them, contracted, for comparison:


And from the photo from previous post, contracted. It's different - as a miniature version of other corals:

Actually it was the one coral, divided soon after arrival.

[ChilisREasy]

got an update for us Cary ?

[carym]

Update....hmmm well the coral is still alive and looks healthy, it has "sat up" a few times but I haven't seen any polyps. Problem now is I got a new anenome that is almost blocking it and sometimes touching it. I tried to move the Chili coral but it attached to the rocks around it.

I am trying to be very patient with it and not jumping to conclusions.... I will try and take a pic tomorrow night and post, busy tonight with bowling

Cary

[carym]

Well here is an updated pic, had to move it because of the Anenome....

[ChilisREasy]

well...not to be buggin' ya Cary, but.. any news ?