Blasto Wellso Growing Pups

[drainbamage]

So I picked this feller up from Will at AquaSD maybe 4 months or so ago. When I got him, he had 7 heads, looked like a t-shape 2 full heads above, 2 full heads below, one to either side, and a tiny pup head offset in the middle. I liked his color, and plopped him in my tank (after carefully acclimating by watching the bag sit on the table while I ate lunch.)

And well, he's grown. Not just the polyps, but as you can see in the following pics, he has way more than 7 heads on him. I didn't think too much of it, but as a few people have told me it's not common to get Blasto Wellso's to put on new heads, figured I'd put the pics up.

 

[revhtree]

Vedy cool! I just love that!

 

[ReeferRob]

Good stuff bro, always good to know your doing something right! By the way what is it? LOL Love Blastos, but have never been able to get any growth. Im good at killing them though, inadvertently!

 

[revsgirl]

Very nice! Great looking piece!!

 

[fenderguy1]

Very nice! Mine did the same thing thing. I started with 2 heads now im am around 10+ in 8 months..

 

[myzislow]

Nice growth, I wish I could get my wellso to do that.

 

[drainbamage]

Thanks all

Good stuff bro, always good to know your doing something right! By the way what is it? LOL Love Blastos, but have never been able to get any growth. Im good at killing them though, inadvertently!

It's a Blastomussa Wellso of some sort or another, for whatever reason when I first got it, the name "crucifix" popped into my head based on it's shape and whatnot, so that's the name I've also used for it.

 

[ReeferRob]

Thanks all



It's a Blastomussa Wellso of some sort or another, for whatever reason when I first got it, the name "crucifix" popped into my head based on it's shape and whatnot, so that's the name I've also used for it.

LOL, well aware of what it is. One of my favorite corals. I was asking, what is it based on, your doing something right!

 

[drainbamage]

LOL, well aware of what it is. One of my favorite corals. I was asking, what is it based on, your doing something right!

Lol, that makes much more sense re-reading it!

Not aware of anything particular I do...I know this guy reacts positively whenever I dose iodide in the tank, and besides that, he eats like a pig. Each of the larger heads will take up to a 1/4 cube of frozen food if I offer it.

 

[cee]

This started as about 8 heads several years ago. I don't think it is all that uncommon for a healthy blast but getting a healthy blasto can be more of a challenge

 

[HiddenReef]

how often do you feed thats nice growth.

 

[condor]

very nice

i have also had small blasto colonies grow large, and on average only target fed once a week

 

[cee]

Don't know if you're addressing me or not but I did not feed it to get it to grow that much.

 

[drainbamage]

I feed between 1~7 days a week, nothing standardized with the schedule.

 

[Speg]

Over the years, I have adopted the thought of "anything with feeder tentacles gets food"...

I feed my blastos about twice a week. Turning the power heads off is important because their tentacles are so short. It works really well and they grow fast if you feed them. I get new heads every couple weeks.

 

[Appaloosa1224]

So I have a question re:growing blastos. I have these guys:

They are in the back, so you can see relative polyp size

The polyps on this blasto are huge, the adult ones are 2 inches or so across, so the babies just don't get light. I want to grow a nice colony of them, but without them getting light, I don't see how I'll achieve this. Any ideas? Anyone else have these blastos? They do grow seeing as how this started as one polyp, but they've definitely have slowed down and are not encrusting onto the rock they are placed on.

 

[drainbamage]

they're a colonial animal, so one part getting fed feeds the other. Thus the "parents" shading the "pups" isn't a problem. To help accelerate the growth, you can definitley target feed them, especially the adults will accept reasonable sized food. I have blasto's in the 1-1/2" diamater range that take down PE mysis quite readily.

Very nice Blasto's though!

 

[Appaloosa1224]

they're a colonial animal, so one part getting fed feeds the other. Thus the "parents" shading the "pups" isn't a problem. To help accelerate the growth, you can definitley target feed them, especially the adults will accept reasonable sized food. I have blasto's in the 1-1/2" diamater range that take down PE mysis quite readily.

Very nice Blasto's though!

Good to know. They do get fed- once or twice a week. I just feel like the shaded ones aren't growing at all.

 

[drainbamage]

Good to know. They do get fed- once or twice a week. I just feel like the shaded ones aren't growing at all.

Target feed the new heads (if you're not already.) Based on armchair science observations, I'm of the belief that the more the pup heads are fed, the more incentive the coral has to grow them out. Sort of how I've noticed that the more I feed my chalices, and particularly the sloppier I do it ( putting food on the entire chalice, not just the mouths) the more inclined they are to grow heads.

 

[mycoralgarden]

I have to agree with the above about feeding. We feed all of our LPS, I strongly believe in "babying" each and every piece that I have in my systems. Ive had phenominal growth with Blastos simply from feeding. Do turn off the power heads though.
I generally start with mysis shrimp, sometimes I soak them in amino acids or tissue restore. Then after they get used to getting fed 2-3 times a week, I bump it up to a mix of squid, mysis, small chunks of krill, anything meaty and chunky. Ive seen a growth spurt sometimes as much as 12-15 babies pop out all at once. Continue the good work there, soon you have a huge colony to cherish!
Becky