What was your first coral?

Apollo7235 · Mar 21, 2021

Hi all!

I'd love to hear about your first coral experience. Looking for inspo!

ETA: Show me some photos if you have them!

fish farmer · Mar 21, 2021

Anthelia = weed
Xenia elongata = weed, but made me $300 store credit
Green striped mushrooms = weed, almost died out in 2003, still going strong(read invasive) in my current tank.

Apollo7235 · Mar 21, 2021

fish farmer said:
Anthelia = weed
Xenia elongata = weed, but made me $300 store credit
Green striped mushrooms = weed, almost died out in 2003, still going strong(read invasive) in my current tank.

~~I'm sorry, but I'm a super newbie. What do you mean by 'weed'?~~

Whoops, nevermind, I gotcha.

Thanks for sharing!!

fish farmer · Mar 21, 2021

Apollo7235 said:
I'm sorry, but I'm a super newbie. What do you mean by 'weed'?

Meaning they grow extremely well and become invasive and cover rocks where in the future as you hone your skills you want nicer corals you're stuck with weeds that many people don't want.

kenniole · Mar 21, 2021

a Hammer head that I paid $40 for and was the size of a penny. the lfs super ripped me off. Never went back to that place

davidcalgary29 · Mar 21, 2021

Mushroom. Fried it with hypersalinity (by mistake).

First successful coral: duncan

First coral I wanted to kill: Kenya Tree

Apollo7235 · Mar 21, 2021

kenniole said:
a Hammer head that I paid $40 for and was the size of a penny. the lfs super ripped me off. Never went back to that place

Oh man, what a bummer! We have a LFS about 25 minutes from us that I am excited to check out but I'm trying not to get my hopes up. I would certainly love to find them to be a great resource for livestock and advice, but you never know!

Thank you very much for sharing!

LegendaryCG · Mar 21, 2021

a red acro, yes I’m weird. No it didn’t die.
I don’t have that tank anymore but here’s a photo of the one I started in Jan- 3 months ago. I make it a point to challenge what people say.

fish farmer · Mar 21, 2021

Apollo7235 said:
Oh man, what a bummer! We have a LFS about 25 minutes from us that I am excited to check out but I'm trying not to get my hopes up. I would certainly love to find them to be a great resource for livestock and advice, but you never know!

Thank you very much for sharing!

Being in Orlando you must be close to World Wide Corals?

Apollo7235 · Mar 21, 2021

davidcalgary29 said:
Mushroom. Fried it with hypersalinity (by mistake).

First successful coral: duncan

First coral I wanted to kill: Kenya Tree

Oh boy, what happened with the Kenya?

redeyejedi · Mar 21, 2021

A tiny 1 polyp frag of green torch.

This is it now.

Apollo7235 · Mar 21, 2021

fish farmer said:
Being in Orlando you must be close to World Wide Corals?

Actually, yes, now that you mention it. They're only 40 minutes away from us!

I just told hubby we're definitely making that trip!

Apollo7235 · Mar 21, 2021

LegendaryCG said:
a red acro, yes I’m weird. No it didn’t die

I don't think that's weird at all. I think they're pretty! But that's coming from someone who barely knows the very bare minimum basics of coral keeping. Haha

Apollo7235 · Mar 21, 2021

redeyejedi said:
A tiny 1 polyp frag of green torch.

This is it now.

Oh my, that is gorgeous!

davidcalgary29 · Mar 21, 2021

Apollo7235 said:
Oh boy, what happened with the Kenya?

Day one: wow, a Kenya Tree! How beautiful!

Day 7: ooh, another Kenya Tree! This must be the "shedding" that I've heard about! Now I can fill in that blank space at the back of the tank!

Day 14: oh, three more branches? Okay, I guess I can use them...

Day 15: Exactly how BIG do they grow??

Day 30: maybe cold will kill them

Day 35: maybe fire will kill them

Day 40: maybe I should just nuke the tank from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

LegendaryCG · Mar 21, 2021

Apollo7235 said:
I don't think that's weird at all. I think they're pretty! But that's coming from someone who barely knows the very bare minimum basics of coral keeping. Haha

Well it’s weird because i jumped into the deep end very early (didn’t know better) as they are moderately difficult to keep. I wouldn’t say my first one thrived but it did survive and grow out into a colony.

redeyejedi · Mar 21, 2021

Apollo7235 said:
Oh my, that is gorgeous!

Thanks. Both pics are both halfs of the colony of that tiny frag.

Apollo7235 · Mar 21, 2021

davidcalgary29 said:
Day one: wow, a Kenya Tree! How beautiful!

Day 7: ooh, another Kenya Tree! This must be the "shedding" that I've heard about! Now I can fill in that blank space at the back of the tank!

Day 14: oh, three more branches? Okay, I guess I can use them...

Day 15: Exactly how BIG do they grow??

Day 30: maybe cold will kill them

Day 35: maybe fire will kill them

Day 40: maybe I should just nuke the tank from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

I'm sorry, but this actually just made me laugh. Very good to know! Crossing another one off of the 'potential stock' list.... Hahaha

terraincognita · Mar 21, 2021

Apollo7235 said:
Hi all!

I'd love to hear about your first coral experience. Looking for inspo!

ETA: Show me some photos if you have them!

My first coral was a hammer. Not the easiest of LPS to keep but easy enough. It didn't die despite my learning curves lol.

If you get anything that grows like "weeds" to see how your "blue thumb" is, just isolate it on it's own rock.

Zoa's are a REALLY great first coral, just get one that's super colorful and you'll never regret it. If you're worried about spreading isolate it.

Elegance Corals are also easy and cool, you can keep them straight in the sandbed.

Otherwise, Blasto's are relatively easy as well and hardy, and don't grow like weeds at all.

Apollo7235 · Mar 21, 2021

LegendaryCG said:
Well it’s weird because i jumped into the deep end very early (didn’t know better) as they are moderately difficult to keep. I wouldn’t say my first one thrived but it did survive and grow out into a colony.

At least it turned out well for you! Now you've got some good experience under your belt, plus a success story