Green Bird's Nest

[Little_Aquarist]

Seriatopora guttatus, commonly referred to as the Bird's Nest coral, is absolutely the most beautiful piece I have in my tank at the moment!

So, this goes out for those who know how to care for these.

As far as lighting goes, I've got enough VHO lighting for it to prosper slowly.
Although, I'm concerned about the water current. The only current I have at the moment is coming from my two "spickets". They provide a very strong current, however, I have my fragment of the Seriatopora guttatus on the other side of the tank.
Also, I'd love to know what to do for feeding. I've read they photosynthesize quite a bit from the strong lighting. Though I hear they also will feed on micro-plankton or foods designed for filter feeding invertebrates.

Any other handy tips for this coral out there?

Thanks!
-Brooks-

[TimH07]

i have one of these frags (from O.R.A.), they are great looking, i love the movement as well.




forgive the fuzziness, i moved a bit. as for coral food, i picked up some from Dr. Mac (his store is amazing) a while ago, a little bit goes a long way Dr. mac food

[Little_Aquarist]

How much flow do you have on this little guy?
Also, is it normal for (after moving them) for their polyps to retract in and leave the skeleton looking brown?

[TimH07]

How much flow do you have on this little guy?
Also, is it normal for (after moving them) for their polyps to retract in and leave the skeleton looking brown?

i have ALOT of flow on them, they wave back and forth alot, they like strong flow from what i've read.

no mine have never retracted, even when i added them to the tank, the fish store guy had it out in the air (edit, for a minute while glueing another frag to a rock), after that in the bag it was fully opened. i'd get some flow on him asap.

[Little_Aquarist]

Okay, so I now have quite a bit of flow on the little guy.
However, I realized that it has detached from the frag supporter.
What should I do to re-attach it?

[Little_Aquarist]

Fix-All Super Glue Double Pack - Super Glue Adhesive Products
Is that safe to re-attach it?

[TimH07]

Misc/Plumbing/Cleaning - Glue and Epoxy - BSI - IC-Gel 20gm x 3 Tubes - Fishnreef.com - (Powered by CubeCart)

this is what i use, it cures under water. you can pull the frag out, glue it to a rock, and put it back in the tank, almost glued my hands together while underwater!

[Little_Aquarist]

Well, as of right now I don't have means of transportation.
So all I have is Fix-All Super Glue Double Pack - Super Glue Adhesive Products
It says it contains ethyl cyanoacrylate.

[charlie]

Mine started out the same size as the frag that Tim showed us. Alternating flow, I have never fed mine, and in one year, here ya go.
A beautiful coral in my opinion.

[TimH07]

wow nice charlie

will the base encrust out more? mine is on a plug wedged into a hole, no glue, im hoping it encrusts the plug then the rock.

oh and is your photo darker because you used a high ISO with fast shutter speed? i've been playing with mine and i get dark photos, but still slightly blurry photos, i dont have extension tubes or macro lens yet


heres one i tried with high iso and i believe it was 500 shutter speed, i forget now, i got alot of noise in the pic

[TimH07]

oh and i dont have a wave maker yet, so both powerheads are pointed at it and the collision of curents creates some back and forth action for me

[charlie]

From what I have experienced, this coral is not real big on encrusting to it's surroundings. I have this coral, and a couple of the pink Seriatopora, and if I wanted to, I could pick them up and move them anywhere I wanted to.

[charlie]

That pic was taken with just the actinic lights on, and I don't really remember the settings that I used, sorry. I do remember using a tripod and my 100mm macro though.

[Ninong]

Well, as of right now I don't have means of transportation.
So all I have is Fix-All Super Glue Double Pack - Super Glue Adhesive Products
It says it contains ethyl cyanoacrylate.

That's okay to use. (P.S. -- But not in the tank. See my later reply below.)

[Ninong]

Also, I'd love to know what to do for feeding. I've read they photosynthesize quite a bit from the strong lighting. Though I hear they also will feed on micro-plankton or foods designed for filter feeding invertebrates.

SPS corals can get up to 95% of their energy from their symbiotic zooxanthellae through photosynthesis. However, all corals do feed, which is why they have mouths. They feed on a wide variety of different food items in their natural environment. Obviously, the smaller the mouth (polyp), the smaller the food items it feeds on.

Corals can also absorb nutrients (nitrate) through their tissue directly from the water column. In their natural environment, most corals feed at night. That's because if they expose their delicate polyps during the day, butterflyfish and angelfish might eat them. In a captive aquarium environment, many corals will learn that it is safe to eat even when the lights are on. So captive feeding behavior is often different from natural behavior.

Corals also have the ability to switch back and forth between heterotrophic and autotrophic feeding modes as the circumstances require. That simply means that they have the ability to vary the percentage of their nutritional needs that are met by eating stuff (heterotrophic) and photosynthesis of their symbiotic zooxanthellae (autotrophic). They also have the ability to change the size of the individual zooxanthellae cells and to change their population density based on the intensity of the available light. They can even change their own shape to better take advantage of available light and to adjust to the intensity of water currents.

Some people never feed SPS in their reef aquaria directly, relying on them to get by with whatever they can from leftovers from feeding the fish, plus their direct uptake and their symbiotic zooxanthellae. Other people do feed their SPS intentionally by simply including the appropriate food in their regular feeding schedule or by doing special feedings after dark exclusively for the corals. You do not spot feed SPS like you do with some LPS. The food is simply in the water column and the water current will take the food to the coral's polyps. You don't have to squirt anything at them.

There are a multitude of food items available for feeding corals. I hate to begin a list because I would surely leave off a lot. You can also make your own coral food.

You can begin a search using terms such as "Golden Pearls," "DT's oyster eggs," "Cyclop-Eeze," "rotifers" (for larger polyps), etc. You can also make your own coral food by simply throwing the right stuff into a blender and blending it fine enough (meaning extremely fine, plus the liquid). Your LFS also sells all sorts of stuff in bottles and cans with the word "magic" included in the name. Those are extremely overpriced and unnecessary.

Al Gore Sergei Brin and Larry Page invented Google so that we can find just about anything online in a matter of minutes.

[Reefland]

Make sure to get a gel super glue.
Posted via Mobile Device

[Ninong]

Make sure to get a gel super glue.
Posted via Mobile Device

Oops! I thought she already had a gel super-glue but now I see that it's the thin kind.

Okay, that will still work but you would have to remove the frag from the aquarium for about a minute to do the job. You can still use the thin super-glue, just not in the tank. Take the frag out and put a drop of the thin super-glue in the appropriate spot and then let it dry for a minute before putting the frag back in the tank. Use a paper towel to dry off the spot that you want to glue before putting a drop or two of super-glue on it.

If you need to glue something underwater, use either the gel super-glue or marine epoxy (comes in a stick and you cut off a small piece and then knead it in your hand to combine the two ingredients).

[Ninong]

Check out Eric Borneman's coral food recipe.

Links to Eric's articles on what corals eat:

Reef Food

From the Food of Reefs to the Food of Corals

The Food of Reefs, Part 3: Phytoplankton

The Food of Reefs, Part 4: Zooplankton

The Food of Reefs, Part 5: Bacteria

The Food of Reefs, Part 6: Particulate Organic Matter

The Food of Reefs, Part 7: Dissolved Nutrients

That's what corals eat.

[Little_Aquarist]

Wow! Thanks, Ninong!
That basically answered everything I needed, plus some!
Once again, you're the base of all knowledge!
Thanks!!!

Brooks -

P.S. the frag's polyps are completely opened, and it's doing excellent!

[TimH07]

hey charlie and zhenya are pretty awesome too!

:P