"Easy Corals" Thats given you issues.

[gsw0716]

Hello, Just curious, what's one, if any,easier type corals that you never really had success with. Maybe if it didn't die, you never got any growth from it or real success. Mushrooms, zoas, GSP type corals, the ones that are supposed to be bulletproof for beginners.

 

[kevgib67]

Hello, Just curious, what's one, if any,easier type corals that you never really had success with. Maybe if it didn't die, you never got any growth from it or real success. Mushrooms, zoas, GSP type corals, the ones that are supposed to be bulletproof for beginners.

I have a dominant lps tank with some softies and sps but I struggle with mushrooms especially ricordia I have put 6 in over the years and have zero now. I quit trying to figure it out.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Leptoseris and Cyphastrea. I'm pretty sure it's something in my well water. Acros, LPS, zoas, softies all do fine, just not Leptoseris or Cyphastrea.

 

[56longroof]

Zoas tend to do poorly in my tank for some reason. It's odd because I have some palythoa grands that are doing great. The green ricordia mushrooms are kicking butt also.

 

[edsbeaker]

Zoas just melt away in my tank. Palys are fine, though.

 

[edsbeaker]

Zoas tend to do poorly in my tank for some reason. It's odd because I have some palythoa grands that are doing great. The green ricordia mushrooms are kicking butt also.

Looks like we have the same issue!

 

[56longroof]

Looks like we have the same issue!

It's odd. I have 1 colony that's doing ok but not spreading and the rest of them are slowly disappearing.

 

[edsbeaker]

It's odd. I have 1 colony that's doing ok but not spreading and the rest of them are slowly disappearing.

I only have a few left, but like you they are not growing. Too bad they can’t tell us why.

 

[biecacka]

Zoas and GSP


Corey

 

[hatteras hank]

Never done great with mushrooms in the past for some reason. Maybe should try again.

 

[BriDroid]

I can’t keep cyphastrea alive either. I’ve tried 3 different ones, and they just slowly die.

 

[Bohemian Waxwing]

It's odd. I have 1 colony that's doing ok but not spreading and the rest of them are slowly disappearing.

I only have a few left, but like you they are not growing. Too bad they can’t tell us why.

I’m the same, but I’ve recently been having some good results by upping their exposure to flow.

 

[gsw0716]

Glad/not Glad to hear about some zoa issues. I've done somewhat well for a beginner but I have lost one Duncan and a couple Small Zoa frags that just melted away. My other zoas are doing great though.

 

[FrugalReeferJon]

Hope this is allowed and not a coral, but I have to say chaeto. Everytime I’ve tried to keep a ball of it, it just slowly breaks up and melts away over time.

 

[Malum Argenteum]

Mushrooms, zoas, GSP type corals, the ones that are supposed to be bulletproof for beginners.

Part of the reason that these are supposed to be bulletproof for beginners is that they tolerate a really wide range of Ca and KH (which new keepers may not have dialed in, or even know about), a fairly wide range of lighting intensity (and probably spectrum), and tolerate/prefer organics (which may be high and variable in the newer stages of overfeeding and realizing that cheap or nonexistent skimmer isn't working well and so on).

But other than the tolerance of a wider range of water quality/parameters, they are just like any other corals in that they do best in the conditions they do best in. Mixed reefs (which are popular out of proportion to how sensible they are, from a coral care perspective) are going to make some "beginner" corals not do well simply because they're not being run in the expected "beginner" conditions. Corallimorphs in an SPS reef aren't going to necessarily do well not because of something paradoxical about their 'beginner' status, but often because they would prefer different conditions. The more the hobby continues to focus on how to shoehorn a motley bunch of critters together (which has always been the program, in general), the less will be learned about what makes each critter really thrive, and so the 'just doesn't live for me' thing will never get solved. (There's of course the mix of allelopathic chemicals that's unique to each tank -- given the innumerable combinations of coral species -- that won't get untangled without long experience with less complex cohabitation instances).

That's of course not the whole story, but the 'beginner' aspect of some corals should be understood for what it is -- a typical tolerance for certain conditions. As the hobby changes and novice keepers enter with different practices and different equipment and different mixes of animals, "beginner" corals may not really be that.

 

[Fritz05]

Zoas, and I actually managed to kil ltwo Xenias and a GSP.

 

[rusty shackleford yes]

I got a discounted single-polyp candy cane coral that isn’t doing all that well right now. I’m trying to nurse it back to health though. It’s skin was already receding at the LFS, which is why they gave me a discount!