
As you can see, there are a couple of new residents.
First up is an open brain coral

This is another stony coral, and while photosynthetic, it also needs a regular supply of solid food in the form of mysis shrimp.

These guys are polyp corals, and I transferred them from my smaller tank. These are soft corals, and spread fairly rapidly. When I first put this rock in the reef, there were only 7 or 8 polyps on the rock.

You probably recognize this guy from last week, the trumpet coral. But, if you look closely, you'll see that it has grown significantly over the last 3 months. In fact, it's gone from 7 polyps to 11, which has been really cool to watch.

If you look closely in this picture, you can see how the polyp has elongated and formed two separate mouths. It's well on it's way to complete division. As the polyps divide, they continue to build a stony skeleton that will begin to look like stems of flowers. As the coral matures, the polyps grouped togethe will begin to resemble the bell of a trumpet, hence the name.

Here's another repeat ustomer, the muchroom coral. Notice that the polyps have reproduced and also grown to cover most of the base rock. Since this species does not make it's own skeleton, before too long, I expect to find polyps on other rocks in the aquarium.

Last but not least, comes the bubble coral. It's hard to tell from this picture, but he's almost doubled in size over the last three months. I've been trying to find out how they reproduce, if this one will keep getting bigger, or if it will divide somehow, but I haven't found out anything yet.
In a couple of months, I plan on adding an anemone/clownfish pair, a pistol shrimp/goby pair, maybe some frogspawn or maybe even some small polyp stony corals.
I'll post more pictures then.
« Close 'er up!

This is another stony coral, and while photosynthetic, it also needs a regular supply of solid food in the form of mysis shrimp.

These guys are polyp corals, and I transferred them from my smaller tank. These are soft corals, and spread fairly rapidly. When I first put this rock in the reef, there were only 7 or 8 polyps on the rock.

You probably recognize this guy from last week, the trumpet coral. But, if you look closely, you'll see that it has grown significantly over the last 3 months. In fact, it's gone from 7 polyps to 11, which has been really cool to watch.

If you look closely in this picture, you can see how the polyp has elongated and formed two separate mouths. It's well on it's way to complete division. As the polyps divide, they continue to build a stony skeleton that will begin to look like stems of flowers. As the coral matures, the polyps grouped togethe will begin to resemble the bell of a trumpet, hence the name.

Here's another repeat ustomer, the muchroom coral. Notice that the polyps have reproduced and also grown to cover most of the base rock. Since this species does not make it's own skeleton, before too long, I expect to find polyps on other rocks in the aquarium.

Last but not least, comes the bubble coral. It's hard to tell from this picture, but he's almost doubled in size over the last three months. I've been trying to find out how they reproduce, if this one will keep getting bigger, or if it will divide somehow, but I haven't found out anything yet.
In a couple of months, I plan on adding an anemone/clownfish pair, a pistol shrimp/goby pair, maybe some frogspawn or maybe even some small polyp stony corals.
I'll post more pictures then.
« Close 'er up!