Is My Duncan Sprouting a New Head?

C-Reefer · Jan 25, 2018

Hey guys, first time poster here! Long story short, I started my reef about a month ago. I finished cycling 2 weeks ago. When I was finished cycling I got a YWG and pistol shrimp pair and CUC. This Monday I got my first coral, a healthy 4 head Duncan. I dipped it and in a few hours it was fully open. My question is, I found a small lump with what looks like a few tiny tentacles on the skeleton on an open spot where there isn't a head. Is it a new head sprouting? Thanks!

Himes102 · Jan 25, 2018

Welcome to R2R! Looks like a new head to me! Also beautiful Duncan you have there!

C-Reefer · Jan 26, 2018

Awsome! I'm planning on taking it off the frag plug and mounting it Sunday. By then it should have been long enough to start feeding right? Which will then accelerate growth! And thanks! Oh, I have mysis shrimp, brine shrimp, and reef roids. How much should I feed each head? And with the reef roids, with only one coral, should I just mix up a tiny bit and turn off pumps and spot feed directly on it?

ReefJake123 · Jan 26, 2018

Definitely a head mine is doin true same thing but my baby heads are getting big anyways directly feed it reef roids that increases its color growth and overall beauty only about two punches of reef roids will do

C-Reefer · Jan 26, 2018

Did you mean about 2 pinches? After Sunday when its been settled in for a week I'll give it a good feeding with reef roids, feed the small heads and I'll feed the new one as soon as I see tentacles and a mouth haha. Awesome!

So how do you frag these guys? What if you have a huge colony and want to divide it in half and put the one half somewhere else?

Sea MunnKey · Jan 26, 2018

I hardly feed my Duncan colony at all and even if I do feed them, they seem uninterested in the food given. My system is skimmerless but weekly water changes still. Plannig to get a dual pump Reef Filler as per Randy Holmes Farley method.

Duncan's are photosynthetic and mind you when you handle it, they tend to excrete slimy mucus all around.

Himes102 · Jan 26, 2018

C-Reefer said:
Awsome! I'm planning on taking it off the frag plug and mounting it Sunday. By then it should have been long enough to start feeding right? Which will then accelerate growth! And thanks! Oh, I have mysis shrimp, brine shrimp, and reef roids. How much should I feed each head? And with the reef roids, with only one coral, should I just mix up a tiny bit and turn off pumps and spot feed directly on it?

I use phyto feast and drop 1 tea spoon in front of jet (does great!)

I also have mysis shrimp and brine.. I usually feed my Duncan, I also feed my torch, frogspawn twice a week.. I’ll spot feed them. Definitely turn pump off.

ReefJake123 · Jan 26, 2018

Yea I meant two pinches of reef roids

dutch27 · Jan 26, 2018

I'd suggest leaving it plug mounted. Since the flesh covers the entirety of the coral, they get slimy and tough to work with off the plug, and they don't grow out bases like other stony corals for the most part. For mine, I used some epoxy putty to secure the plug into a hole in a rock, it's been like that for 2-2.5 years, happy as can be.

I find Duncans I've kept love to eat, but grow like weeds without target feeding, so I just let them catch what they catch when I feed the fish. By all means go for it, I'm sure it'd take to target feeding very well.

C-Reefer · Jan 26, 2018

Sea MunnKey said:
I hardly feed my Duncan colony at all and even if I do feed them, they seem uninterested in the food given. My system is skimmerless but weekly water changes still. Plannig to get a dual pump Reef Filler as per Randy Holmes Farley method.

Duncan's are photosynthetic and mind you when you handle it, they tend to excrete slimy mucus all around.

I've heard they grow a lot faster if you feed them. When I feed my fish they exhibit a strong feeding response and if they catch anything they bring it to their mouth. I have noticed if you touch them too much they do give out a slime.

dutch27 said:
I'd suggest leaving it plug mounted. Since the flesh covers the entirety of the coral, they get slimy and tough to work with off the plug, and they don't grow out bases like other stony corals for the most part. For mine, I used some epoxy putty to secure the plug into a hole in a rock, it's been like that for 2-2.5 years, happy as can be.

I find Duncans I've kept love to eat, but grow like weeds without target feeding, so I just let them catch what they catch when I feed the fish. By all means go for it, I'm sure it'd take to target feeding very well.

I'll see if I can get it off the plug easily, if it doesn't I'll just leave it. I figure if I do get it off I'll use a bit of epoxy and super glue to secure it, if not i'll do the same.

Mine definitely loves eating and I'm not even trying to feed it yet. Since its my first coral I want nice fast growth so I'll probably spot feed.

Sea MunnKey · Jan 26, 2018

The slime doesn't occur on the cut area ...

C-Reefer · Jan 26, 2018

I figure I won't be cutting the actual duncan off, I'll grab the frag plug and use an exacto to gently work the glue they used to secure it to the frag plug off the frag plug since the glue doesn't usually have a super great grip.

Is there any way to ever frag these? What do you do, just cut off a head?

rkpetersen · Jan 26, 2018

They are very hardy and grow fast. You don't have to specifically feed them at all; with good light, water quality and flow, you will have more new polyps than you know what to do with before you know it.

Personally, I wouldn't take this one off its plug either. What I usually do with frags like this is carefully cut away pieces of the plug so that it isn't obviously round/artificial. Then mount it on the reef. With time, the plug will be completely or nearly completely obscured.

Duncans can be fragged like other corals. Under the soft polyp, there is a calcified corallite. When contracted, the corallites are apparent and the coral can be cut between them.

ReefJake123 · Jan 26, 2018

You don’t need or feed but I feed mine reef roids for the color it gains after haven eaten it’s amazing amount of fluorescent green

dutch27 · Jan 26, 2018

If you pop it off the plug, don't use epoxy to secure it to the rocks, glue only. Epoxy typically damages coral it touches when it is still curing; it gives off quite a bit of heat during the cure. If you want to get an idea of the slime, handle the base of the coral, the skin will slime up and get slippery, makes it tough to hold it in place while the super glue gets enough of a hold to be stable.

TBH, duncans get very round and full when big, and you won't see that plug. I can't see the original plug on mine unless the polyps are all closed up. Reefing is a long game, don't worry about what you can see now, think about what you will or won't see in a year or two.

This should be a nice big flowing coral for you in no time, I'm sure you'll love it. Such a nice looking, fast growing, easy to care for coral. Great choice for a first coral.

Adele · Jan 26, 2018

I love feeding my Duncan’s. Last night for the heck of it I hand fed some pellets and they sucked them right in. Other days I turkey baste Reef Chili from BRS. Had them two weeks and already new heads are forming.

C-Reefer · Jan 26, 2018

Ohh sounds fun! I'll have to try some reef roids on it soon.

didn't think about the heat... when I built my rockscape I epoxyed together nd even while they were just mixing it got hot. I'll just use glue. The problem with not taking it off the frag plug... I have a little niche on the rock for it. The frag plug is huge, way bigger then normal and flat. I can't fit it in the niche without sawing some off or something. So I figured it would be best to take it off. Also, I figured if I just popped the glue off the frag plug instead of the coral off the glue, I'd be able to use that glue thats already on the duncan as a good place to put new glue without worrying about the slime.

C-Reefer · Jan 30, 2018

I took it off the plug. It went well, and way easier then I thought. It was good practice for future corals. Anyway, as I was working with it, before I took it off the plug I teased it to get it to close up. When I inspected it I found THREE new heads! So now I have 4 new heads in total! These three are a lot bigger then the one I showed you guys. I can see tentacles coming out. I'll be feeding every other day to avoid gut rot. In the day since I noticed it they've already grown. This means its literally going to double in size!