Beginner Coral: Candy Cane (Trumpet)

[DracoKat]

Thanks, @40B Knasty - I have a 2 head of that one!

 

[40B Knasty]

Great article this was my first coral and it's been about 4 months and still has not split. I feed it once a week. I put a tiny be of krill on the mouth and it takes it in pretty quickly. During the daytime it seems to be nice a puffed up and looks great.

I stopped hand feeding mine. See that pic up top with arrows pointing where the flow is. Had 6 bells. Now it has 10 as of 26 days has past since that pic. Reefroids and light time change has been a monster success. Peak hour is 10am & 5pm.

 

[Reef man 89]

I stopped hand feeding mine. See that pic up top with arrows pointing where the flow is. Had 6 bells. Now it has 10 as of 26 days has past since that pic. Reefroids and light time change has been a monster success. Peak hour is 10am & 5pm.

I think I might have to get some reef roids I have seen a lot of people on here that use it with great success.on your lights how long to you keep your peek hour on? I think I have mine on to long. I have it set to turn on at 12:00pm-12:30pm sunrise the. From 12:30pm till 8:00pm peak then 30min sunset then off. Do you think that's to much peak time?

 

[40B Knasty]

I think I might have to get some reef roids I have seen a lot of people on here that use it with great success.on your lights how long to you keep your peek hour on? I think I have mine on to long. I have it set to turn on at 12:00pm-12:30pm sunrise the. From 12:30pm till 8:00pm peak then 30min sunset then off. Do you think that's to much peak time?

JBJ 4x39w
3 moonlight LEDs 8:30am-9:15am wake up call & 7:15pm-8:30pm put them to bed.
2xBLUE+ 9am-7:30pm
B+, C+, B+, True Actinic 9:15am-11:15am & 4pm-6pm.
Reefroids at 5pm 2 x a week

 

[Jennie]

My candy cane coral has never "puffed" up. Here are my parameters. Ca-440, mg-1500, dkh-9 or kh-161, phos-.15, and nitrate-6 to 7. I also have threee heads of Duncan's that don't want to open as well.

 

[Applegate]

Has anyone here seen highlighter yellow candy canes? I currently have neon green, kryptonite and the red ones but my lfs has highlighter yellow ones. Never seen them that color anywhere else and I'm nervous if I get them, they'll just change to neon green under my lights. Thoughts?

 

[ChiSox Rabbitfish]

Love this thing I have another colony growing that broke off this one I hope to have 2 of those candy cane ball colonies

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Hey, thank you.
Great little write up on a beginner coral. Mine was a mushroom coral for the first.
I like how u gave credit to the original picture takers good job. Ive had pictures used for other peoples gains. lol. A simple thing like u did woulda made a world difference. Hi nanareefer!
-d

 

[William Robinson]

I know this an old thread but maybe some of you are still following it... Why can I do easily what is hard and what is hard kicks my rump??? I have a mixed reef, 4 channel dosing (Alk,Cal, Mag & Acropower) sump with refugium (Chaeto Algae) and a RS-100S skimmer, 2 gyre pumps, 680gph on the return (calculated with head lose) and a Reef LED 90 from Red Sea. My Trumpet is not doing anything... It hasn't had any tissue loss, no growth and opens up nightly to feed. I've even fed it directly at night reefroids to see if that would help. My parameters are pretty stable (Mag 1350, Alk 9.6, Cal 440)
What the heck is going on here. It was introduced into the tank about a year ago and I became irritated and started working with it specifically about 4 months ago to no prevail...
Any ideas???

 

[Seaspirit]

I know this an old thread but maybe some of you are still following it... Why can I do easily what is hard and what is hard kicks my rump??? I have a mixed reef, 4 channel dosing (Alk,Cal, Mag & Acropower) sump with refugium (Chaeto Algae) and a RS-100S skimmer, 2 gyre pumps, 680gph on the return (calculated with head lose) and a Reef LED 90 from Red Sea. My Trumpet is not doing anything... It hasn't had any tissue loss, no growth and opens up nightly to feed. I've even fed it directly at night reefroids to see if that would help. My parameters are pretty stable (Mag 1350, Alk 9.6, Cal 440)
What the heck is going on here. It was introduced into the tank about a year ago and I became irritated and started working with it specifically about 4 months ago to no prevail...
Any ideas???

I’m a beginner but based on what others have said, apparently placement and flow are also important. Did you try moving it higher or lower in the tank? Closer or further away from flow?

 

[zoa_fanatic!]

Beginner Coral: Candy Cane (Trumpet)​

Candy cane corals are excellent for beginners! They are relatively fast growers and tend to be forgiving of lackluster water quality. They come in several colors and are easily fragged. Candy canes are mostly inexpensive as well so they are very attractive for new hobbyists since there is very little investment involved in this coral with potentially great rewards.

Photo by: 143gadgets

The candy cane coral (Caulastrea furcate) is an LPS coral, or Large Polyp Stoney coral. This means that it’s made up of a hard skeleton that, in this case, branches out and ends with a large polyp at the end of each branch. Each polyp has a mouth and small tentacles around the oral disk that come out when the coral is feeding. This coral grows by splitting a polyp into two identical polyps. This can happen with many of the polyps all at one time, hence the fast growth rate. As it gets larger, the candy cane forms itself into a large ball of polyps.

Photo by: Mr. Ugly

Lighting should be moderate to strong for best results, but moderate lighting like T5’s are just fine for the candy cane. I’ve even seen them grown under compact fluorescents without any trouble. Moderate flow with periodic feeding will aid in quick growth as well. Feeding is easiest when you use a turkey baster or similar feeding apparatus to put small meaty food directly into the mouth of the candy cane. Since the feeding tentacles come out after lights out, you’ll get better results if you wait to feed until the lights go out.

Photo by: Wiz

These corals are tolerant of mistakes like a dip in salinity or a temperature spike. They may look bad for a while afterward, but usually make a swift recovery from it. No matter how tolerant they are of mistakes, this is a good time to start monitoring your big three parameters weekly. Calcium (CA), Magnesium (Mg) and Alkalinity (Alk or KH) are important when maintaining a reef aquarium and should be monitored weekly to be sure you are maintaining the proper levels of each for the health of your corals. Each of these is used when an LPS coral builds its skeleton to grow. I don’t want to go into depth on the chemistry of it, but I do want to make the point that if you are wanting to start getting into harder corals to keep, the candy cane is a good one to practice on and is a good time to start learning about those elements in your tank water.

Photo by: NanaReefer

Fragging the candy cane is simple. Bone cutters or a band saw make quick work of it, though it may be easier to use the bone cutters when fragging a dense, large colony. Pick a branch on the outer edges of the coral to start with since it will be easier to access with the bone cutters. The bone cutters will partially crush what it cuts to make sure to make the cut far enough down away from the polyps so that they aren’t damaged. These frags can be glued to a small rock or a frag plug and traded or sold after a week or two of healing time. Even one or two polyp frags will quickly grow into a decent size colony before long.

Photo by: geris

The next time you are at the LFS check to see if they have any candy canes in stock. There is likely to be a good selection and since there are many colors available, you are likely to find something that appeals to you. From the striped candy canes, from which these corals get their name, to the solid blues, teals and neon greens, these are a beautiful addition to your tank!

I’ve had one polyp for months with no growth. I do weekly water changes to my 32 bc so dosing isn’t necessary at this point. I use AI 16 prime but nothing seems to how.