[RobG]

I have two bubble corals attached to one rock that I've had for about a month and a half. The rock was pretty heavy, so I didn't use any epoxy to hold it.

I got home from work yesterday to find it fallen off the reef, onto the sandbed on it's side. One of the bubbles had receded big time, but it recovering fine now.

Either way, I picked it up, and placed it at a different angle back on the rocks where it likes to be. A couple of hours later I notcied something: There is a third, bably bubble coral on the side of the rock that used to face away from the glass, so I never noticed it! It's about 1 cm wide and 1.5 cm long with about 6 small bubbles. Cool

Now for the questions you knew were coming:

How do bubble corals reproduce? Can it happen in captivity or was this baby on the rock when I bought it and I didn't notice?

Should I feed it? It's too small to accept a silverside -- maybe a tiny tiny piece of shrimp.

How do I remove it from the rock? I definitely want to place it elsewhere to let it grow better, and three bubbles are a little too much for the size of the base rock.

Thanks, sorry for the long post

Rob

[ravenmore]

As to the feeding, I'm in a similar predicament. I had a pearl bubble that died a couple of months ago. However, several small, individual polyps survived and have formed about 6 to 8, tiny baby pearl bubble corals. I mean tiny, you'd have to measure their diameter in terms of millimeters.

Now, I know corals can feed off of several "microscopic" sources. Bacteria, dissolved organics, fish feces are some. Photosynthesis can provide some "short term" energy as well, but not the protein & nitrogen compounds required for growth. I've been feeding the smaller sizes of golden pearls, and they've been surviving for a couple of months now. Hopefully most of them will survive and grow to the point I can start hand feeding them.

I'd say though, if your coral has survived to this point, it's getting some substancial nutrition from somewhere. Good luck!

-Mike

[RobG]

I feed the tank Golden Pearls (Rotifer size) -- I alternate between using a syringe to cover the sand bed with them and just dumping a mixture of seawater and GP into the tank.

I also use DT's every few days, so hopefully one or both of those things is helping out the baby coral. Maybe if it gets a little bigger I'll try feeding it a single brine shrimp (selcon soaked) with some tweezers...

Any advice on removing it from the rock?

[ravenmore]

Well, the Dt's is not likely to directly benefit these corals, but it will feed animals that produce plankton which can feed your corals.

I'd leave it be on the rock for now. When it get's bigger you might try a dremmel style tool to cut the chip of rock off that it's growing on.

good luck.

-Mike