Ive had this mystery coral for 1.5 yaear and it has not grown.

[randomfishdude]

So as the title says I've had this coral for 1.5 years. We got it and it always has looked like it has now. Never grown. I would like to know what it is? It's in my mother's tank however.

 

[boacvh]

Looks like a blasto to me

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

+1 for blasto

 

[randomfishdude]

Ye I agree

 

[twentyleagues]

Agree looks like blasto. I have had the same 2 head red and green blasto for 2 years looks good but still 2 heads. Wonder if they need more actual food to grow faster? Mine will eat but it takes them forever and food is usually picked up by fish before it happens.

 

[DanyL]

Agree looks like blasto. I have had the same 2 head red and green blasto for 2 years looks good but still 2 heads. Wonder if they need more actual food to grow faster? Mine will eat but it takes them forever and food is usually picked up by fish before it happens.

Some LPS like blastos, Acans, etc can greatly benefit from regular direct feeding.

If fish are picking the food out of the corals mouth, you can put a cup upside down over the coral with a hole from which you can inject the food through using a turkey baster.

~10 years ago I even saw commercially available products you could buy that implemented this technique, though I’m not sure if they still sell them.

 

[crazyfishmom]

This looks like a blasto wellsi I have. It seems to be particularly slow growing. All of my other blastos have sprouted heads while this one just kind of hangs out.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Agree looks like blasto. I have had the same 2 head red and green blasto for 2 years looks good but still 2 heads. Wonder if they need more actual food to grow faster? Mine will eat but it takes them forever and food is usually picked up by fish before it happens.

I have that same one and agree it grows very slow. I started with 2 polyps about 4 years ago and it only has about 8-10 heads now. Its one of my slowest growers.

 

[twentyleagues]

Some LPS like blastos, Acans, etc can greatly benefit from regular direct feeding.

If fish are picking the food out of the corals mouth, you can put a cup upside down over the coral with a hole from which you can inject the food through using a turkey baster.

~10 years ago I even saw commercially available products you could buy that implemented this technique, though I’m not sure if they still sell them.

I have implemented that technique in the past and have even used those feeding cage products. I havent really had to worry about it recently but I may start to as I have a certain fish that loves to make sure no food goes to anything but fish now. He will steal food from corals and take it to the top of the tank and if he is full will put it back into the water column for other fish to get easily. He will go inspect all coral and if he can grab food he will. I have thought my elegance was going to have fish a couple times.

 

[DanyL]

I have implemented that technique in the past and have even used those feeding cage products. I havent really had to worry about it recently but I may start to as I have a certain fish that loves to make sure no food goes to anything but fish now. He will steal food from corals and take it to the top of the tank and if he is full will put it back into the water column for other fish to get easily. He will go inspect all coral and if he can grab food he will. I have thought my elegance was going to have fish a couple times.

Sounds familiar

Right now the main thieves in my systems are Lysmatas, but l've found that if I throw them a bit of food beforehand they usually just let the coral eat peacefully.

With fish however it's a bit more difficult to distract them. If you have a large enough tank you can also try feeding your corals while the fish eat Nori and are all concentrated in one side of the tank, but depending on the fish this might not work at all.

My only complain against feeding cages is that they can sometimes be a bit finicky not use when the coral is significantly larger, and I sometimes end up touching the tissue with it which really isn’t desirable.
But otherwise they work really well, especially for corals the can fit right inside it.

 

[VintageReefer]

I use an ice cap feeder. It’s super long. Feed the fish first. Then Turn off flow. And when I start feeding corals most the fish hide. I supervise and chase them away with the feeder until the food is fully in the polyps mouth. It takes about 5 min to target feed my tank and I have a lot of mouths to feed

 

[randomfishdude]

I use an ice cap feeder. It’s super long. Feed the fish first. Then Turn off flow. And when I start feeding corals most the fish hide. I supervise and chase them away with the feeder until the food is fully in the polyps mouth. It takes about 5 min to target feed my tank and I have a lot of mouths to feed

I use the same looking thing lol.



In my tank I've always fed my corals. Some sps on occasion. Was gone the past week on a cruse and told my buddy he could feed the coral. He fed the stylo I had and it grew like crazy.

I'll tell my mother to feed that coral see if we can get it to grow. It's just been one of thoes "background corals"

 

[DanyL]

I use an ice cap feeder. It’s super long. Feed the fish first. Then Turn off flow. And when I start feeding corals most the fish hide. I supervise and chase them away with the feeder until the food is fully in the polyps mouth. It takes about 5 min to target feed my tank and I have a lot of mouths to feed

Yup, that’s the one I use as well and is what I also attach a plastic cup to as a feeding cage.

Chasing fish and shrimp doesn’t always work though, or rather can be quite frustrating when feeding a large amount of corals. It really depends on the inhabitants of the tank, which may also change their behavior over time.

 

[VintageReefer]

feed them 2x a week and they will grow into little colonies

 

[twentyleagues]

Sounds familiar

Right now the main thieves in my systems are Lysmatas, but l've found that if I throw them a bit of food beforehand they usually just let the coral eat peacefully.

With fish however it's a bit more difficult to distract them. If you have a large enough tank you can also try feeding your corals while the fish eat Nori and are all concentrated in one side of the tank, but depending on the fish this might not work at all.

My only complain against feeding cages is that they can sometimes be a bit finicky not use when the coral is significantly larger, and I sometimes end up touching the tissue with it which really isn’t desirable.
But otherwise they work really well, especially for corals the can fit right inside it.

My main thief is a Timor wrasse its a pain in the butt, but I like it. My Mimic tang will some times do it too it will fight whatever i try to chase him away with so at least its not stealing the food. I always feed the fish first, it doesnt matter.

 

[DanyL]

My all time nemesis was my Melonorous wrasse, although in recent years (it is about 9-10 years old..) somewhat stopped bothering corals while I feed them (he still obliterated an OG bounce last year though..)


As for the mimic, lol some fish can really do give a fight back. Interestingly, l've found that tangs in my frag tank where I more regularly put my hands in are far more likely to swim and play with my hand than in my main system, but it’s almost exclusively an SPS tank, so I don’t feed much on there outside my Rics (which the Lysmatas *love* to bother).

 

[randomfishdude]

Where I am in my tank. My fish I've seen casually swim through ny torches. At the point I'm at roght now I have to forcefully push my foxface and sailfin away with the tube. They don't even run when I chase em with it.