MixedFruitBasket
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Trigger warning: contains the sacrificial massacre of unsuspecting stereonephthya.
so I’ve been studying my butt off over these coral now for well over a year since I acquired my first three colonies and fell in love. One of the biggest realizations I’ve had regarding this coral is they simply aren’t all that prevalent in the market. I’m not sure why other than maybe they look ugly to some people in the ocean yet pretty when the color up in an aquarium. Anyhow one of the things I have worked towards is figuring out the most logistical way to farm these coral in all colors. As you can guess bright colors are very hard to come by in comparison to simple golds yellows or pinks.While these are beautiful they are not like the super oranges the purples the super yellows with rose colored or purple polyps the super yellows with yellow sclerites or oranges with purple or pink polyps.
So I have been watching and learning about this unique coral. In fragging and mounting some of the simple truths are they will not stay if they do t like the scenery. If you capture them and force them to stay they promptly disintegrate and spread themselves to the tides.
Now granted, when this happens they will usually appear on the plugs of other corals and in my over flow or return. Which is what they seem to prefer actually. These spots are the most shallow and out of the strongest points of wave action from the wave makers. There is water flow but it is smooth and constant. Iow it does not pulse or thrust.
There are a few other anecdotal observations but they are unimportant at the moment.
Over the past few weeks I have been planning the demise of several selected sacrificial frags. Some of which pained me to give up but you know...science.
Anyhow, I decided to select multiple colors from different colonies and mix them with photo plankton then put them in a blender.
Yes you read that correctly. My experiment involved blending about a dozen cuttings into chunky goo.
Today I prepped my frag tank adding black gravel normally used in fresh water tanks. For whatever reason stereonephthya seems to prefer this. Perhaps because it resembles (in texture) seashells that have been smoothed out by the waves. This of course it just speculation as is most of what I’m sharing. There is little to no data on these corals. I’m hoping to change that.
So let us begin....
so I’ve been studying my butt off over these coral now for well over a year since I acquired my first three colonies and fell in love. One of the biggest realizations I’ve had regarding this coral is they simply aren’t all that prevalent in the market. I’m not sure why other than maybe they look ugly to some people in the ocean yet pretty when the color up in an aquarium. Anyhow one of the things I have worked towards is figuring out the most logistical way to farm these coral in all colors. As you can guess bright colors are very hard to come by in comparison to simple golds yellows or pinks.While these are beautiful they are not like the super oranges the purples the super yellows with rose colored or purple polyps the super yellows with yellow sclerites or oranges with purple or pink polyps.
So I have been watching and learning about this unique coral. In fragging and mounting some of the simple truths are they will not stay if they do t like the scenery. If you capture them and force them to stay they promptly disintegrate and spread themselves to the tides.
Now granted, when this happens they will usually appear on the plugs of other corals and in my over flow or return. Which is what they seem to prefer actually. These spots are the most shallow and out of the strongest points of wave action from the wave makers. There is water flow but it is smooth and constant. Iow it does not pulse or thrust.
There are a few other anecdotal observations but they are unimportant at the moment.
Over the past few weeks I have been planning the demise of several selected sacrificial frags. Some of which pained me to give up but you know...science.
Anyhow, I decided to select multiple colors from different colonies and mix them with photo plankton then put them in a blender.
Yes you read that correctly. My experiment involved blending about a dozen cuttings into chunky goo.
Today I prepped my frag tank adding black gravel normally used in fresh water tanks. For whatever reason stereonephthya seems to prefer this. Perhaps because it resembles (in texture) seashells that have been smoothed out by the waves. This of course it just speculation as is most of what I’m sharing. There is little to no data on these corals. I’m hoping to change that.
So let us begin....
. Wondering which one will produce the most babies out of this
