Caranation coral care

[samdizshiz]

So im thinking on buying one but i read they are very hard to take care of and have a horrible survival rate soo is this all true

 

[Tahoe61]

Unless you can provide the coral with almost a constant supple of small particulate matter of phyoplankton, zooplankton or a homemade slurry of meaty seafoods and marine algaes then the coral will be short lived, usually a couple months before they start to shrink in size. Feeding the coral what it needs is balance of also maintaining water quality, this is the reason this coral is listed as expert.

 

[samdizshiz]

Ahhh so they need constant feeding i gotcha

 

[Tahoe61]

Attempting to target feed the coral a couple times a week does not cut it in my experience. They do well in NPS tanks but in our lower nutrient systems they slowly starve.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden/ItemDisplay.cfm?c=2733+10&ddid=305777

 

[samdizshiz]

That would make sense ive been watching it in my lfs for a couple weeks and its slowly getting smaller and staying closed most of the time haha not a good buy

 

[WetWhistle]

Since they are non-photosynthetic they need a constant supply of food. They are best kept in a species tank with other non-photosynthetic coral. You can set up an refrigerated auto feeder that will help. See the link below. Keep in mind the heavy feeding comes with water quality issues. We used to keep them in Mature tanks that were already a few years old with deep sand beds with big refugiums attached. We used to have a power head on a timer turn on and off every hr and stir up the top layer of sand so it would kick detritus into the water. We got some ok survival rates but not long term past a year. These are best kept by experienced reefers in aged systems that are willing to dedicate all the time and energy needed to feed and maintain them.

Most feed heavily on phyoplankton and to some degree of zooplankton as the primary source of feeding. The secondary mode of feeding is uptake of dissolved organics from the water. This all depends on Species and what they prefer to feed on. To complicate matters worse, food particle size is very important and it needs to be very small. As the corals constantly sieve the water for the correct size of food item you need a heavy amount of food items in the water at all times. Water flow is equally important and needs to be just right. To much or to little and the coral is unable to feed.

Unless you are experienced and have an dedicated aged system I would not recommend it. These are one of those corals that should be left in the ocean in my opinion.

http://www.reefaddicts.com/content.php/249-refrigerated-automated-feeding-system

 

[samdizshiz]

To much for me my water quality would go down the drain im not home enough to take care of the bugger definitly agree i see stuff that should just be left in the ocean all the time