What happened to your starting corals?

[Slocke]

I'm guessing most of us started with easy fast growing corals to get going before eventually moving on to the more difficult stuff. The "beginner corals" are great for getting started. Usually tough and fast growing meaning you can get sopme success and know you're on the right track before starting on the more difficult stuff. However being fast growing and tough beginner corals can become a weed.

So my question is what was the fate of your first corals? Sold? Left on an island? Exterminated?


Personally I started with a rock of GSP and a beginners pack that contained Bob Marley zoas, Pandora zoas, yellow parazoanthids, pulsing xenia, and another frag of GSP. And their fates are as follows:

• Bob Marley: killed in accidental friendly fire intended for aiptasia.
• Pandora: Mined to destruction by greedy humans!! After becoming a uncontrollable weed it was collected and given to my butterfly and angels in my FOWLR.
• Yellow parazoanthids: After growing over a giant rock in the middle of my tank I decided they were ugly and sold the rock to an LFS for $10.
• Pulsing xenia: Learned the hard way that red fuzzy hermits are not reef safe.
• GSP frag: sold immediately for another $10.
• As for the main rock of GSP may I present GSP monster:

 

[blaxsun]

I still have a tiny piece of my GSP left (having managed to kill off 99.9% of my GSP colonies over the past few months). The culling wasn't intentional - still baffled what caused the mass die-off.

 

[Lavey29]

my starting zoas proliferated everywhere

 

[Uncle99]

They have been terminated.
Sorry, feel bad, but would feel worse if they took over.

 

[Slocke]

I still have a tiny piece of my GSP left (having managed to kill off 99.9% of my GSP colonies over the past few months). The culling wasn't intentional - still baffled what caused the mass die-off.

I've heard that happen to a few people. I know one was caused by asterinas taking a liking to it. For me it seems to survive everything. It was in my tank with my original rocks and I mixed the saltwater directly in the tank not knowing any better. So its survived 0 to probably 45ppm salt and it was February so the water was very cold.

 

[MoshJosh]

Think my first corals (xenia, kenya tree, and monti) were all fragged and traded to the store. I still have my green pavona, or at least a frag of the original, and my bubble coral (never did well for me until recently).

 

[blaxsun]

I've heard that happen to a few people. I know one was caused by asterinas taking a liking to it. For me it seems to survive everything. It was in my tank with my original rocks and I mixed the saltwater directly in the tank not knowing any better. So its survived 0 to probably 45ppm salt and it was February so the water was very cold.

I honestly though the GSP would outlive me (or possibly tie with cockroaches).

 

[afrokobe]

well the first ever corals, let's not talk about those.... in the second batch, I still have my speckled kraks and bowerbanki. Both started as 1 or 2 polyp frags and now are nice little colonies.

 

[Mschmidt]

Xinia, dead due to low nutrients
Bob Marley (and all my first zoa's), same fate
Acan, dead lack of flow
Various rodactus, never been able to keep mushrooms
Duncan, still kickin and growing
Hammer, 4 mouths now from 1. Still one head though (I think)

 

[i cant think]

First off, some of the losses… Each has their own story but all ended in their demise. My most recent was the Duncan being wiped out by Stars within just a few weeks if not days.

Now for the ones that have survived, plus their before and after photos.

My first SPS that went in (Stylophora sp.);

Another one of my first SPS corals in my nano (Tropic Thunder Montipora)

My first LPS to go in my nano (Fimbriaphyllia paraancora) - now my last remaining LPS in the large tank;

My first coral to hit my 4’ tank (Ricordea yuma) - Survived an ammonia spike along with a Chili coral who is also with me and under the rock;

My first Leather (Colony) - IDed as Sinularia brassica.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I never got "starter" corals when I was a newb. Jumped right in with acans and trumpets. Yeah they're on the easier side to keep but I doubt anyone would see them as a pest in a mature mixed reef.

I had heard the warning tales of GSP and xenia and swore them off from the start.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

......... we don't talk about my first corals.


I was an inexperienced beginner with my first tank, knowing absolutely nothing about the hobby, power went out when we were on vacation.....

 

[00W]

I still have all of mine.
They were all just stumps destined for the trash and they were given to me by a friend.
They have all grown-some more than others and some I've had about 2 years.
My trigger did eat all but two of my Kenya trees but I moved one out so one left.

 

[Mr_Knightley]

First corals were a couple eagle eye zoanthids and a purple shaggy rhodactis. Rhodactis melted in a matter of hours due to unbelievably high nitrates, zoas were never affected. Soon afterwards I got a bicolor hammer and a frag of blue Caulastrea, which lived in that tank for a few months before an upgrade. Shortly lost all of those during a pet sitting disaster (pet sitters' senile mother had to fill in for him, put the entire jar of fish food into a 24g tank).

I have yet to see a blue Caulastrea for sale since, and that was 9 years ago. I've seen teals and cyans, but not the true blue which is ironically pink like a leather and not blue at all.

My oldest surviving coral, off the top of my head, is a massive plate of Lithophyllon I got in 2018 with a new tank. Long story short, it survived while the other freebies did not.

 

[steveschuerger]

These Duncan’s are my oldest at just under 2 yrs. Both started with 1 or 2 polyps

 

[JohnNYC8]

My first was a Green Hairy Mushroom and it's going strong. The only thing it doesn't like are my clowns hosting in it but it'll have to get used to that.

 

[soreefed]

Pandora zoas are being removed weekly. They grow aggressively and easily over take other zoas and corals.

I’ve traded or moved most of the green sinularia I started with.

I rapidly started adding LPS a few months into my first tank and the only thing I lost was a bubble coral when I swapped from a 10 to 20g.

 

[Slocke]

Pandora zoas are being removed weekly. They grow aggressively and easily over take other zoas and corals.

I’ve traded or moved most of the green sinularia I started with.

I rapidly started adding LPS a few months into my first tank and the only thing I lost was a bubble coral when I swapped from a 10 to 20g.

Get yourself a pearlscale butterfly and you’ll never worry about pandoras again! This rock was covered in them. (Obviously joking, pearlscale will eat all your corals)

 

[soreefed]

Get yourself a pearlscale butterfly and you’ll never worry about pandoras again! This rock was covered in them. (Obviously joking, pearlscale will eat all your corals)

Pearlscale butterfly is so pretty!

Ive been using a steel straw siphon to remove them and it does a decent job.

 

[dennis romano]

Twenty five plus years ago, started with green mushrooms and hairy mushrooms which I still have.