my new corals are here!

[pastina]

Originally Posted by kappaknight

I do the same thing with corals but I do a 30 second acclimation with fish. I'm sure I'll have to be more patient for sea stars...

a few years ago i bought a chocolate chip starfish, i just did my usual and plopped him in (the tank was even cycling still) he did great, i had fim for over a year until i tore down the tank
then several months back i bought a banded serpent star, i was like ooo i gotta be careful with him. i acclimated him, which now you know is something i rarely do, i had him acclimating for an hour, drop by drop even talking to him while i did this.
the freakin thing fell appart in a week, im like wtf
so my next starfish im ploppin' in right away

[hng]

OK, sorry for the delay folks, here are the new pics. The pics don't really do them justice as far as the color goes. The polyps are not fully extended either. Hopefully, once they fully acclimated, they will look much better. The polyps are also much smaller than I had imagined.

[Tim224DT]

Sweet we got pics now!!!


Tim

[pastina]

awww there cute

did you glue them down?

[leveldrummer]

i love the color of the first pic! now grow them! frag them! and send them! (to me) and Tim224DT

[hng]

Originally Posted by pastina

awww there cute

did you glue them down?

No, they were attached to rock fragments already. I think you would be happy with them, easy to place. The frags are small though, and your turbo might knock them down. This morning, the polyps looked bigger, maybe they'll look great tonight?

[Hardhead Cat]

They look good - - the frags always look much smaller when you actually see them (rather than on the web site) but the colors are great!

HHC

[pastina]

i went to that site were you got those. they have really nice stuff
anyone try that epoxy stick? do those work?

[hng]

Haven't ever used epoxy sticks before, just superglue gel has worked fine for me.

[fchidsey]

Nice Corals Great Pics.

[whatevva]

i went to that site were you got those. they have really nice stuff
anyone try that epoxy stick? do those work?

I use the epoxy when I have something large or odd shaped to attach. Since it usually comes in white, I was coloring it, with food coloring, to match the area where it was going. Now I've found it in red and purple.

[Brent Cone]

Nice!!!!!
Brent.

[tdwyatt]

Nice!


Once they become used to the conditions in your system, they will expand more and open up. Zoanthids really do not need much in the way of acclimitization, if the salinity is close, they will do fine, they are somewhat tidal in nature, so they are used to rapid changes in conditions for salinity,etc.


Different types of Asteroidea, in particular Linckia spp, have widely differing abilities to deal with salinity swings, especially from Asterina spp. and the like. It is their ambulacral locomotion system that is the issue, as are many of the other echinoderms with hydrovascular systems. It is the sudden changes /swings of SG in these creatures that make osmotic pressure chnges that rupture membranes in these creatures, spelling slow death for many of them. Asterina spp, and many of the Opisthebranchs, have direct muscularization to spiny projections through the dermis and articulated dermal plates that serves to provide their ocomotion, allowing them a wider range of salinities and sudden SG changes. In Ophidiasteridae like the Linckia and Fromia spp., a few small SG swings occurring on a relatively infrequent basis will usualy be tolerated, but the large changes often seen at import stations to reduce the likelyhood of parasite hitchhikers, then a LFS salinity change, then back up to near full strength in a home system often results in the loss of echinoderms with ambulacral locomotion systems (or for that matter, any creature that depends on osmotic gradients to drive their hydrovascular systems). If you're lucky, acquiring such a specimen will be after relatively few changes of only a short term nature, otherwise, you see the dismal survival rates of these Linckia, Fromia, and Nardoa specimens often seen in shipping to hobbyists today.


To make a blanket statement that all sea stars would survive such treatment would be more than a disservice, as there are many noobies that read posts here and will not know that there are huge differences in the echinoderm taxa represented by the seastars. Better to err on the side of conservatism than to acquire creatures that will have a much reduced chance of surviving the shipping stresses and introduction into a home system with a less-than-optimum curation process.


just my 2 cents...

[autochek]

Yeah I 2nd whatever the heck Tom just said.

[xaoss23]

in otherwords... they have big pores and strecty skin.