Scoly care and long term

Michael43

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I would love to get a couple scolymia in the future. I read on say wwc they are easy care rating but a lot of experiences I e read about them is that they do great for awhile but then start to die off for no reason. What's everyone's take or experience with these? Thank you
 
I have no luck with scoly. But it is do to my setup. They are not a hard coral to keep in terms of excellent water perimeters. But they do prefer low light levels and low flow current. I have neither, and they suffer after a few months. They also love to eat. If you have very low nutrients. You will need to feed them more often to compensate. Several types of fish also like to pick at the fleshy polyp of many LPS so that is another issue i have an angelfish.
 
I have 2 they are doing great. I spot feed them couple times a month. I noticed their color really enhanced using red sea reef energy.
 
Ive kept scolymia now going on a year.... def noticed that the first few I had started to lose tissue for no apparent reason after several months. At that Time I began feeding and all have rebounded. Its my opinion that scolymia require food source for long term health. I think many people keep them for months with no issue, but the lack of food catches up and they begin to die with no apparent reason. Again just my experience, but I have multiple health scolymia that are now growing in size, and all i can attribute this success is due to feedings them (2 times weekly). I use mix of pellets and then reef chili or reef roids.
 
for target feeding with pellets and reef roids, do I just use New Life aspectrum pellets? I also recently buys 1 scolly, just fed it for the first time with frozen brine

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What i do is take a shot glass, and add some reef roids or reef chili, and tank water. Let the stuff soak for a few min, then I add Fauna Marin LPS pellets to that "mixture" and let the pellets sit for like a min or so (just to get water logged). Then I just use a turkey baster and suck up a few pellets at a time and feed each LPS coral in my tank. Doing it this way means that each time you squirt some pellets on your LPS, they also get a bunch of the tiny food particles that are in the other foods mentioned that drop down on them as well, providing more of a "mixed" food source. In my opinion just seeing the feeding response alone from a scolymia should tell you that they def eat in the ocean, thus should be fed in our tanks.

As far as you question on NLS pellets, I do use those for fish but would recommend a coral specific pellet food. The fish pellets have some fillers in them, as well as more fish specific foods added where as the pellets are more so made out of plankton etc and thus would prolly be closer to a more "balanced" food for the corals. Again I personally would not use fish pellets long term, but I'm sure others have successfully. In the mean time if you don't have any coral pellets, frozen foods like mysis would work great for the scoly as well. I would place an order from some coral specific pellets though as they are just much easier to feed consistently (i.e. at least 2 times a week). Don't overfeed them, I typically give each soclymia in my tank anywhere from 5-10 pellets depending on how large the specific coral is.
 
Also want to add that again you will hear NUMEROUS opinions on this and don't take mine as fact, rather its just been my observations that LPS do better, have better coloration, and grow much faster when provided food. Again I base a lot of my opinion on the matter off the feeding response witnessed, these corals have clearly evolved with such a robust feeding response in nature for some reason, thus I find it hard to ignore the fact that feeding can only help their long term survival and growth.
 
I do not feed spot feed my Scoly and doing great. Moderate-indirect flow ,medium lighting and monitor for Phospate levels.
 
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here's mine right after feeding. Mine will open up when he wants food does maybe once a week. When he's hungry it will open up as soon as food hits the water.
 
From my experience and some of other hobbyists', apart from stable water parameters (salinity is the most important) that you would need for most corals, Scolymias said to like lower water temperature for the long term. They seem to be really happy around 74-76. This is supposed to be because they are from deeper areas of the reef, which also mean they are adapted to lower light (shaded areas of the tank, bluer light). Scolymias doesn't seem to like too much flow and prefer moderate indirect flow.

Regarding feeding them, do not over or under feed. Feed them sparingly, but do feed them. They come from murky areas of the reef and do need to be fed. Like all corals, they take a lot of time to digest, depending on how complex and big the food is.

They are stronger than you think and quite hardy, but can only handle so much abuse. Good luck!
 
I once was really into scoly and maintained 6+ over 3 years of time. When they mouth is gone, that’s a for sure death signal.
 

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
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