Florida Ricordea care....Trials and tribulations, successes.

[Azurel]

I figure since we have started a Yuma care thread we will start a discussion on Florida Ricordea. To me one of the most coveted species of corallimorpharians there is, let's say the queen of the mushroom kingdom.


From personal experience I think lighting, alk, Ca, flow are the most important factors in keeping Florida Ricordea in the aquarium. Before I didn't have MH or VHO even T-5s I only had NO bulb and they would diminish within 3 months.

Since I have upgraded all of my equipment and switched salts to Red Sea Pro I have not had a single issue with Florida Ricordea, Yumas maybe but not Florida(knock on wood). I have mine right now in what would be med/high flow that is oscillating by a Natural wave timer powering 1 MJ1200 and a MJ900. They seem to really like the flow and being blasted with the lighting which they are on the bottom but under direct lighting from a 250w 14k Hamilton SE and 2x54w T-5s UVI Super actinic Rs. The coloration of these polyp have only intensified since placement in my tank. I have gotten about 20 polyps in the last 2 weeks and a rock with about 50 polyps that were showing signs of fading in color from what the original owner has told me. I will see in the next 2 weeks or so what happens with the color of this rock.


All those who keep Florida ricordea please share your experiences wither it be positive or negative and the conditions that you have kept them in and if it is successful or not....

 

[b0bby1]

i totally agree, i have my 20 gallon sandbed covered with about 75 polyps all different colors, besided my frag rack for my palys and chalices in the middle. they are all about and 1" or bigger, like med/high flow and sit directly under a 150w pheonix bulb. more flow=greater polyp extension.

 

[currentking]

my ricordea all do great. I had one rock that I didnt have room for so I just put it at the very top of the tank close to the light without accclimation and they were losing a little color over time. I think each color needs different light. I have some green ones shoved to the side of the tank where they dont get great light, and they are ectended out to about 2" or more.

 

[kenske]

Florida rics are the one of the first corals that i kept since i got into the hobby. I have had them in a 10gl (my first saltwater tank) under 80watts of pc lighting. They have been doing great since the beginning, never had any issues with them (knock on wood). Other than the fact that they grow slow. I put my first polyps of florida rics within 3 weeks of stating up the tank.

 

[gflat65]

I've got mine from the sand bed to about 8" below the water surface in a 120 with (2)-175W Ushio 14K's and (2)-110W VHO 03's. I use IO salts and have a har dtime keeping my alk and Ca high enough, despite dosing massive quantites every couple of days... I'm running a Tunze 6200 and a Seio 800 for flow (aside from the returns). Not a ton of flow, but most things move around at least gently, some more violently then others. I wil say that the few florida rics I've seen diving were in pretty heavy flow and were relatively small polyped. The ones (all florida rics in this case-I have had luck with only one yuma...) on the bottom of the tank get low to medium flow, but seem to color up over about three weeks time or so. In coloring up, some just get deeper colors (more depth, but still as fluorescent), while others go from pink to orange and vice versa. The greens usually just get more depth of color. The ones under lower light (near the backl wall of the aquarium and almost shaded) show much larger polyp extension. Some of the ones higher up seem to fade in color depth a little, prompting me to move them lower. The ones with higher flow seem to pack in tigher (they are also getting more light).

 

[kenske]

Anyone keep rics in a low-nutrient setup? Couple of reefers i'vs spoken to have a successful sps tank, but have seem to have a problem with getting their rics to thrive.

So far, my boss and i both have a high nutrient tanks, and rics are doing great in our tanks.

 

[Azurel]

See that is one of the things that has always baffled me with SPS guys, you can take pictures of a coral mound in the ocean and there will be sps and I sure there are some soft corals some where on that structure. The SPS guys have always keep the nutrients low or to the point of none existence which isn't nowhere even reality in the ocean. The same water that the "nutrient" loving mushroom or other soft coral is surrounded by is the same exact water. It's not like when water that comes over the coral structure that has a lot of SPS is nutrient free other wise it would die just like the rest of it.


I do keep my water Nitrates around 0-5ppm I have never tested this tank and had it over 5ppm in the 7 years I have had it up or course that could be cause the macro I have is sucking it all up as fast as it is released. I have how ever had issues with silicates and have not had issues with Phosphates and the ricordea I had at the time of the silicate issue seemed fine as well. They seem to take a low nitrate levels, I would be interested to hear how they do in a SPS dominated system as well.......

 

[kenske]

Last night 2:00am: I cut 4 rics , one if which is a yuma. This pic was taken 11:00am. It llooks like they have completely healed already! No sliming at all, though there wasn't much to begin with. No more white (speghetti). They are puffy , just like before they were cut. Even the smallest piece isn't shriveled up. I would have to say, this is the my easiest and most successful ric fragging session.

pic taken with lights out (they are not on yet) and with flash

 

[gflat65]

I had a few in my SPS system before I moved and they did well, too. I've always run a dirty tank, despite efforts to run a clean one. I run an MR4 on a 125, but still have plenty of algae growth (ran an MR2 for years on the same tank). They got too much light in the SPS tank, too, though. The oranges always turned pink and stayed small (not unhealthy, but after 2 years, no reproduction). IMO, extra light can help a lot with color on SPS if you have a dirty tank...

 

[143gadgets]

I have mine in a BB setup and run it VERY clean. I had them in a similar setup and have had no problems with them. I do feed very heavily though.

 

[fishes2889]

I have had nothing but great success with keeping my florida's. Their my favorite corals and i will continue to collect them. I have noticed that they can be blasted by my T5's or on the bottom, shaded, and still thrive. They love medium to high flow and actually reproduce faster, ive noticed in higher flow and higher light.

One problem ive had is other corals getting in the way of my florida's. Sometimes i forget to glue single peices down to a rock and they end up all over the tank.

As far as a high or low nutrient tank, i dont really think it matters. Ive kept them in a 5.5g HIGH nutrient tank with no water changes and my 33g, which is fairly clean and low nutrient(sps in the system).

They are the hardiest animal i have kept and are definitly up there with their diverse colors/morphs.

Now i just cant wait to get more, but that will have to wait when i have some money!

cheers

 

[Azurel]

Any more input?......

 

[Hypertek99]

Mine do great in any lighting. But now i have MH and they are not bother by it. I do feed my tank every other 2 days so i think they like high nutrients.

 

[Patwa]

I have had nothing but success with r. floridas....here are some of my observations from my almost 5 years keepng them (in order of importance!!)

1. They love being next to each other....that is, place your floridas very close to one another....they puff up, show their colours and more importantly seem to be happy/reproduce when squished right up against one another

2. They like medium to heavy flow

3. They like medium to medium high light.....if you want to blast them with bright lights, you must acclimate slowly!

4. They love being fed....reef-roids, cyclopeeze...or anything in a mush form..the more you feed, the more happy they are (ie. growth!)

5. Propagating them by slicing them can work quite easily, but IME, just treat them right and they'll reproduce on their own at quite a respectable rate.

On a side note, I find r. yuma WAAAAAY harder to get to reproduce than r. florida......

6. The colour you see at the store may not be the colour you get at home....I had a beautiful purple one come in from Cuba....like, really purple, ...it turn to a drab brown within 2 months.....it did so well and split quite often, but it NEVER regained the purple again......same deal with the odd pinks and yellows...only certain morphs can retain most of their colour, but most shift to a varying degree.

7. They react quite well to amino acid supplement....well, my zoas react to that as well, i might add!

that's all i've got for now.

Zach.

 

[Azurel]

Good stuff Zach......I got some purples like grape koolaid purples, that were a light grey blue at the store and over about a month or so they turned dark purple.......So you are correct they do tend to color morph to varying degrees. The pinks I have though have only gotten pinker so what you say is true there as well.....I think also that some places say pink when in fact they are peach etc.....Like some yellow that are claimed to be yellow actually look to me to be a varying shade of orange, not that they are bleached just a different shade of orange like the multiple shades you can see on a color wheel or colors......To me yellow is just like the hair of the Viking in my avatar. That to me is yellow.....

 

[blide]

I've had ricordia for a the past 4yrs now and have noticed interesting stuff over the course of time.

1. The polyps seem to expand more when there's less light. I had a nice colony that was under some older 250w MH lighting/PC Actinics and the polyps were huge and covered the whole rock. When I upgraded MH lighting to XM10K MH and VHO actinics the polyps shrank and stayed that way from then on...

2. I also noticed polyps shinking and less reproduction when I moved to a low nutrient SPS tank.

3. I've cut my FL ricordia many times and have never loss one ric.

4. Shrimp (Cleaners/Peppermint) are a PIA when it comes to feeding ricordia. They eat all the food and run over the tops of them causing them to close.:mad:

 

[Azurel]

I agree shrimp are a PITA.....

 

[Azurel]

I can tell you this as well.....Acans can really kick a Florida ricordeas butt....I had 2 float right up to a nice small colony of acans and didn't notice till the next day. Man they lived but they were half mushed up and nasty. As far as resilience though they really are coming back from being stung up by the acan though.

 

[AussieLordfan]

I bought a yuma colony rock consisting of 16 or so. Majority are tiny with one medium size and one large. The bigger ones look ok, but I noticed the smaller ones are bleached or so and looking like they're about to melt away. Now they are almost completely white and the smallest ones are gone. Is there anyway these guys can recover from bleaching?

 

[currentking]

sounds like too much light. Move them to the shade. But beware, move them slowly to the shade. Yumas do not like drastic change. I have lost several before I figured this out. I had some doing soo well in my tank, then I had to move them due to a purchase of another coral and over a 2 week period they shriveled up. Take your time moving them to lower light.