[Arctic Fox]

So I was at the lfs the other day, and I see this really beautiful neon green coral. lfs guy Rob says it's a fox coral, and it should be fine in my aquarium with what I have, (me & him know eachother's setups & whatnot). I don't know anything about it. I've got 130 Watts of Compact flourescent, 1 Actinic 3 bulb, and 1 50/50 bulb. Right now I've got him about 8 inches away from my little Rio powerhead, it's like a rio 50, small one. It seems very full, and nothing is wrong with it yet, (I'd like to keep it that way). I feed my inverts 5 mL of Kent phytoplankton and 5 mL of the Kent Zooplankton 3 times a week, (29 gallon tank). It takes the fox coral about 1-2 hours to fully open up when the lights are on, and it hides completely when the lights are off. Is there anything I need to watch out for? Am I feeding it enough? is it's position in the tank fine? Do I need to move it closer or farther away from the powerhead? I just want to make it happy & live grow, so I'm open to suggestions.

I tried to take a picture of it with my webcam, but my webcam sucks pretty bad and I don't have a digicam. Here's the link to a picture I took this morning when it was still hiding and the lights were first turned on. I know it's hard to tell, but it's right smack in the middle of the picture.
http://www.reefland.com/gallery/data...ture_3-med.jpg

[zhenya]

Hi Arctic Fox,

The Fox coral, Nemenzophyllia turbida is not known for accepting any type of food and most of the time it is just a matter of time before it is wasted away.
I am sorry to say this but as far as know this particular corals have very dismal survival rates in aquaria.
Captive care, according to Eric Borneman's book "Aquarium Corals":
" Since this species has been seen to produce feeding tentacles,is reported from turbid water, and is not subjected to intense light in nature, it probably obtains much nutrition by absorption from the surrounding water. Consequently, specimens are possibly better suited to aquariums without aggressive skimming or other highly efficient filtration."

[kevinpo]

I have found this a very easy low light coral to keep. Borneman also lists it as a hardy coral. It will also do well under halides once acclimated to them. Here is one I purchased 4/13/97. It occasionally drops buds off that form their own colonies. I keep mine in the sand (I have 400W halides). They do not require any special feeding and prefer low water flow.

Regards,
Kevin