Mystified by Mussidae

[Calla]

Hello!

I've tried looking around and I've seen some comparisons between two or three of these coral but wanted to kind of get a general idea of all of them at once as I would like to add one or two to my 36g. hoping R2R can help me out!

What is the difference between these guys? I love the look of them but don't know if there's much of a difference.

1. Which is more fun to watch eat? I love target feeding my coral and enjoy watching them nom.
   
2. Care level/aggression/etc? They'll be housed in either a 36g or 55g (husband's) mixed reef tank.
   
3. Which is easiest and which is hardest for a beginner reefer?

• Micromussa/Lord
• Acan
• Blasto
• Lobo
• Scoly
• Favia

 

[ahiggins]

1. Which is more fun to watch eat? I love target feeding my coral and enjoy watching them nom. I LOOOOOVE feeding my acans and rock nems. Scolys eat really slow so its not as big of a reaction as acans. Ive only fed blastos a handful of times. They seem to be slower than acans as well. If you do get acans, make sure to get lordhowensis sp. much less coral to coral aggression. I have a war coral thats pretty cool to watch eat but their heads/mouths are very tiny so you need tiny tiny food.
   
2. Care level/aggression/etc? They'll be housed in either a 36g or 55g (husband's) mixed reef tank. The ones that jump out as "needing to be separate" are lobos, scolys (depends on variety), favias/favites, and any acans that arent lords. By separate meaning you want a good 6 inches of leway on each side so they dont start releasing chemicals into the water. ie chemical warfare. They can all be housed together as long as care is taken to make sure they all have their own bubble lol
   
3. Which is easiest and which is hardest for a beginner reefer? My first coral was an acan I have so many rainbow acans now its probably borderline pathetic lol by far the easiest to keep. Im putting acans and micromussa/lord together for this review because they used to be called the same.
   
   so from easiest to hardest:
   1. acan
   2. blasto
   3. favia/favites
   4. lobo-I have yet to keep a lobo going past 4 months...they just dont like my tank for some reason
   5. scoly-go figure I have the more aggressive species haha but as long as parameters are good and your reef tank is established, youll be all good.
   
   theres only a few differences between acans and blastos, moreso between everything else.
   Hope that helps!!

 

[Calla]

Thank you so much for the help! I'm definitely getting some acans next weekend at my LFS then.

I initially headed out there to snag acans but then the guy who worked there showcased a bunch of lobos and scolys for me--

At least not until I figured out what the differences were.

 

[ahiggins]

hahahahaha yaaasssssss on the gif!!
and thats very smart to not buy until you know what youre dealing with lol Ive done that before and destroyed corals because I couldnt sustain them.

 

[mcarroll]

I think lobo's and other fleshy LPS don't travel so well and/or get mishandled more frequently compared to "most corals". You probably should be a bit more choosy with them. Buying sight unseen would probably not work for me.

 

[ahiggins]

I think lobo's and other fleshy LPS don't travel so well and/or get mishandled more frequently compared to "most corals". You probably should be a bit more choosy with them. Buying sight unseen would probably not work for me.

That's a good point too I like wysiwyg frags

 

[mcarroll]

When you can't account for what happens between the picture being snapped and your house, that's not necessarily better than sight unseen. (Buy local.)

 

[ahiggins]

When you can't account for what happens between the picture being snapped and your house, that's not necessarily better than sight unseen. (Buy local.)

I guess Ive just been lucky then lol The people I buy from pack their frags very well. I have yet to lose an LPS. Only lost one zoa because they fragged and shipped the next day.
I can see why you would worry about a lobo/scoly but not so much the blasto/favia/acan