[suekey1]

Can anyone tell me about this coral? I bought it last week. Was told its a "popcorn coral". I was instructed to put it in my established tank first (I have a 125 I am currently stocking and a 55 that's been up for almost a year). It had kind of "fuzzy balls" at the end of the stalks and I was told they would fall off due to stress but would grow back. Sure enough, the balls fell off in a couple of days but are rapidly growing back. I hate to have something I don't know much about and the store we deal with doesn't know much, either. Hopefully, the picture comes out good. Just in case it doesn't, the coral appears to be leather, it has several 1 1/2 inch stalks with balls on top and is a seafoam green.
Thanks,
Sue

[reefhead]

its not a coral, its a colonial tunicate




http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin...threadid=32089


cheers,
Joe

[suekey1]

Thanks, Joe. Can you give me so information on this? Care, requirements, etc.? I have looked through my "volumes" of reference books and can't seem to find it.
Thanks,
Sue

[Ninong]

Sue ~

Do a search under urochordata, ascidian, tunicate, colonial tunicate, etc. You will get a few thousand hits. Looks like it's a suspension feeder, so if you have happy sponges in your tank, so may have a chance. I couldn't find anything that specifically identified types of food or food particle size -- detritus, phytoplankton, microzooplankton, bacterioplankton, or all of the above. But I didn't really read too deep, so you may find it in there somewhere.

Good luck,

Ninong

[reefhead]

if you read the post by Dr.Ron, he state that its not if they DIE just a matter of time. very said to hear that the odds are that mych against your success.

however, i you feed DT's and other high end foods for filter feeder you could have success.


these corals from what Dr. Ron is saying are to be left out of our hobby and, shame on the uneducated LFS trying to make a buck of them

best of luck,
Joe

[Ninong]

Sue ~

Another option might be to return it to the LFS and swap it for a coral. They sold it to you as a coral. They lied! It's not a coral at all.

Ninong

[reefhead]

Ninong,
that is great advise!!!

[suekey1]

Thanks for the info and advise. Now I know what I'm dealing with. I'm not one to give up, so I'll give it my best shot. I figure if I returned it, someone else with less patience and experience will just kill it anyway. It has completely regenerated it's tops to their original size. I put it in the same location where there are many little white sponges growing and my husband has been putting phytoplex in the tank fairly near it. It actually opens up quite a bit after he does that. It seems to be very healthy and doing well. As an added note, the balls that fell off when we first put it in the tank seem to be growing or sprouting something...maybe that's how they reproduce???? Or maybe they are just disintegrating slowly and will turn into nothing. We'll see.
Sue

[reefhead]

phytoplex is a really crapy product IME

go here and get some DT's LIVE phytoplankton

www.premiumaquatics.com

[suekey1]

Thanks, we do also feed live phytoplankton. The other is used when we cant get the live stuff. I bookmarked the site you referred to, though, cause we are always looking for new suppliers. Here's a recent photo of this new addition. It actually looks better now than when I purchased it.

[suekey1]

OOPS!!! Wrong coral, but doesn't that one look good, too?

[adron420]

Very cool

[reefhead]

Awesome!

[Reinhold]

Just because someone (Dr. Ron) says it's going to die doesn't guarantee that it will.

You may have just the right factors in your tank to keep it happy. I have both an Elegance coral and a Flower Pot coral that were "guaranteed" to die, and they are thriving.

Apparently, the puffy tips frequently fall off and re-grow on these tunicates. Good luck

[gramma royale]

Aren't the puffy tips the tunicates themselves? If so, does that mean that each regrowth is a successive generation of tunicates?