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

[Katrina71]

Mine prefer lower light, indirect flow, and lots of dirty tank water.

 

[i cant think]

This guy loves slightly more flow than someone would think, the majority of the flow backs back off the glass and into the Florida’s direction. The lighting is lower as he is in the bottom right of my tank. The water is relatively dirty but mostly clean as he’s with acros.

 

[merkmerk73]

Bump, it seems the general recommendation at least online stores suggest low par & flow for these.

Yet a lot of people on here are saying medium - high flow & light. can anyone else chime in or is there a thread I’m not seeing? Trying to gather all info before I glue this plug down.

Any specific PAR recommendations? Online will vary 50-200. I’m probably going to try 100-150.

Most of my tank seems to be doing well but my ricordea has been finicky, balling up and lifting the skirt is different areas of the tank I’ve tried. He even use to have 4 mouths but now has 2 and slowly regrowing a 3rd. I’m sure he doesn’t like being moved around so much my pistol shrimp has also completely buried him a couple times which isn’t helping.

This is the question I have as well.

I have two Ricc Fl.

One has been in a higher light area - I'd sa about 100 par. It's done extremely well and grown a lot.

My other one was in a lower par location, and once it started getting shaded more, it's just sorta faded and dwindled

I'm in the process of moving it and I think I'm just gonna park it next to the other one in higher light.

But there is definitely a lot of conflicting information.

@Tidal Gardens says keep this in really low par. Reef Chasers says 80-100+.

 

[i cant think]

This is the question I have as well.

I have two Ricc Fl.

One has been in a higher light area - I'd sa about 100 par. It's done extremely well and grown a lot.

My other one was in a lower par location, and once it started getting shaded more, it's just sorta faded and dwindled

I'm in the process of moving it and I think I'm just gonna park it next to the other one in higher light.

But there is definitely a lot of conflicting information.

@Tidal Gardens says keep this in really low par. Reef Chasers says 80-100+.

Mines in 100-200 PAR at an estimate, I have both yuma and florida at this level and the yuma is bouncing.

 

[PotatoPig]

Got one recently, it just makes a beeline for the nearest rock ledge/burrow and hides in the dark until I relocate it then it does it again…

So not off to a roaring start.

/Modest flow, modest lighting (pair of Noo-Psyche over a 75 gallon at about 30% power)

 

[merkmerk73]

Got one recently, it just makes a beeline for the nearest rock ledge/burrow and hides in the dark until I relocate it then it does it again…

So not off to a roaring start.

/Modest flow, modest lighting (pair of Noo-Psyche over a 75 gallon at about 30% power)

I think you need to anchor them first to a piece of rubble, and at that point they shouldn't be moving on their own.

 

[RichReef]

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....

I have found although they are soft corals they do like cleaner water and the lighting and placement is critical. They like moderate to high light but not a ton of flow. Typically in mixed reefs the flow is kept higher in the areas of light they like to thrive to accommodate other corals. They do not like being in or near shadows. They won't grow towards it.

I don't think of them as a mushroom at all but rather a mini anemone. I think they share similar requirements.

I have not really found a connection with cal and alk but I keep those pretty consistent.

Have to find that sweet spot for them.

 

[PotatoPig]

I think you need to anchor them first to a piece of rubble, and at that point they shouldn't be moving on their own.

Hmm. Is there a good/safe way to anchor one?

 

[merkmerk73]

Hmm. Is there a good/safe way to anchor one?

What most people do is get a mushroom box and fill it with rubble/chunks, and then just set the mushroom on top of that and give it time to anchor itself

 

[TeamAquaSD]

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.

Completely agree with everything said!
Feed them as much as you possibly can and they will just EXPLODE

 

[merkmerk73]

What exactly do you feed them?

LPS pellets?

Mine don't eat reef roid type foods and I've read from others that they won't.

 

[TeamAquaSD]

What exactly do you feed them?

LPS pellets?

Mine don't eat reef roid type foods and I've read from others that they won't.

At the shop we feed reef roids and lps pellets mixed with occasional fish foods. In my tank I will feed them lrs reef frenzy food.

 

[saltcats]

What exactly do you feed them?

LPS pellets?

Mine don't eat reef roid type foods and I've read from others that they won't.

Mine will eat small pieces of frozen mysis etc if it happens to catch one, but it's not very fast to react so it doesn't always get it. The food has to kind of settle on its disc and then it'll eventually fold up over it, but it takes long enough that it doesn't necessarily look like it's going to eat it at first.