Coral behavior?

[jerseyguy1996]

I am brand new to anything reef, or even saltwater for that matter. I am curious as to how I should be interpreting the behaviour of a few corals that I have bought. Also, I just realized that the guy in the lfs didn't tell me what these were. I had asked for something hard to kill so he took me to the tank and pointed out a few things and I told him which ones I wanted but I still don't positively know what they are. Perhaps the experts can help me with that.

The first one.



So what are they and is there anything special that I should be feeding them? They are currently on the bottom of the tank right on the sandbed because they fell off the rock and they seemed happy and fully extended on the sand so I just left them there. Is this okay? Also I have noticed after I feed the fish that they tend to randomly pop in and out of their tubes. Is this a feeding behaviour?

[cdemeritt]

Those are zoanthids, commonly known as zoas and many other common names.
There Diet is about 60% light 40% physical food. mostly capture leftovers or bacteria. Not nessisary to feed directly, but many say they grow much faster if fed. Most any small foodstuff works. I've heard of people feeding cyclop-eeze, newly hatched brine shrimp, blender mush, etc. however most likely if you are feeding your fish, they will get enough from leftovers. Overfeeding a tank is easy to do especially if it is a new tank, and can lead to long term problems.

[jerseyguy1996]

Originally Posted by cdemeritt

Those are zoanthids, commonly known as zoas and many other common names.
There Diet is about 60% light 40% physical food. mostly capture leftovers or bacteria. Not nessisary to feed directly, but many say they grow much faster if fed. Most any small foodstuff works. I've heard of people feeding cyclop-eeze, newly hatched brine shrimp, blender mush, etc. however most likely if you are feeding your fish, they will get enough from leftovers. Overfeeding a tank is easy to do especially if it is a new tank, and can lead to long term problems.

So since they need light would it be wise to put them higher up in the tank? I am running 3 95W VHO's over a 50 gallon tank...approx 18 inches deep.

[betamed]

If you can put them up higher that would be better. You could use super glue gel to adhear them to a larger rock if that would help them stay put. The more light they get the faster they grow. BTW they look healthy.