Ricordea sp. Pics and Info Please

[LiquidShaneo]

I am working on my final project for MACO ( http://www.reefs.org/maco/ ) and the cnidarian that I'm focusing on for my final report is the corallimorph Ricordea. For this particular project, I'd appreciate it if you could do the following for me:

1) Which corallimorph of Ricordea do you have? Ricordea yuma (Pacific Ricordea) or Ricordea florida (Florida Ricordea). Post a picture if possible or a link to the picture as I'd like to see all the different color morphs that are possible with this genus.

2) The lighting that you have found that it "prefers" in your tank. Please give specifics such as what bulbs you have, color temperature, depth that the corallimorph is in relation to bulbs, wattages, etc. Please describe how the corallimorph looks under this lighting. Any trumpeting, etc?

3) The water flow that you have found that it "likes" best (low / medium / high flow). Low flow: 0 - 2 cm/sec, Med flow: 2 - 10 cm/sec, High flow: > 10 cm/sec. Please describe what your corallimorph looks like under these conditions. Any trumpeting? Is it expanded well? Etc?

4) Have you found that it likes to be fed? And if so, what? Describe the feeding response that you see when you feed it. How often do you feed it?

5) What kind of growth rate do you see with it? Do you see new polyps every day / week / month / year? How large does the oral disk get on your particular specimen (diameter)?

6) Have you found it to be succeptible to any diseases in your tank? If so, what? Was their a recovery or did the corallimorph die? Please post as much info as you can on this...

7) Have you observed it reproducing sexually in your tank (producing sperm/eggs) or has the primary mode of growth been splitting of the oral disk with multiple mouths forming and then the oral disk splitting in two? Please describe in detail if possible.

8) Any further items of interest? Predators of it, etc?

When the project is complete for all the MACO students, the above items will be compiled and a final report will be made by each student for each cnidarian selected. Other students are doing Porites sp, Seriatopora sp, etc. These final reports written by the students are to be posted on the Reefs.org website in the library section (from my understanding) after the class is complete for everyone to have access to. We're looking at between 30 and 50 reports to be posted from my guess as there's about 50 students participating currently.

You can also e-mail me your observations and pictures if you would like. My home e-mail is sgraber@fulton-net.com (hoping no spam-bots pick up my e-mail from this post! ).

With posting your observations and pictures here, I would like to have your permission to use your observations and pictures for my final report. I will give you credit where credit is due and I will place a watermark on each image that you submit to indicate who's image it is so that ownership of each image is obvious. I will also be mentioning every person that I reference in my report in a "Thanks" section at the end of my report as the bulk of this data compilation couldn't be done without you.

With that being said, please post/e-mail your pictures and answers to the above questions. I would GREATLY appreciate it!

liquid
(aka Shane Graber)

[LiquidShaneo]

Oh and btw...feel free to just post your pictures too if you don't have enough information to completely fill out the above questionaire as I'm interested in seeing pictures too. However, I would *greatly* appreciate it if you would do all of it... ;)

liquid

[LiquidShaneo]

Back to the top you go...

[Elmo18]

I will post a picture of my Ricordea mushroom tomorrow.

I have one leaf and it has grown a lot since the past two months.

Regards,
Ilham

[LiquidShaneo]

^

[sharky]

Here you go. HTH.
1. Pacific Ricordea
2. 4 WPG of 50/50 PC lighting
3. very little current
4. never directly fed-phyto added to tank
5. each shroom grew from 1" diameter to 4" diameter in less than 6 months
6. no problems
7. can't really help with details-always found a small one next to a larger one-does this at least once a month
8. very agressive-stings any coral near it-caused favia to recede-it healed after I moved it

[scubadude]

[LiquidShaneo]

Anyone else? Thanks for all the replies so far...

liquid

[ReefHawk]

Tripled in size in six mths. Closes up entirely and engulfs brine shrimp. I dont feed it but once a week or so. Not sure on exact sp.

ReefHawk

[Elmo18]

Sharky and scubadude have posted the variety that I have. Very beautiful pics guys.

Regards,
Ilham

[todd_nano]

Ricordea Florida
6WPG PC
MED current
Neverdirectly fed (ate a clown once) - DT's Added to tank
Took 2 months for that foremost polyp to split from time of pic
Seems happy.


-Todd