first sps - birdsnest question

[dragonfisher33]

this question is going to sound retarded, but how hard are the sps? i got a frag of birdsnest yesterday and when i grab it, it feels like a piece of stone without any fleshy feeling at all. is this normal? i don't see the small polyps at all and i hope i didn't pay for a piece of dead coral branch

 

[Sniperhank]

Can you post a picture of it? Sps are hard and you can't really feel the flesh. It can be hard if you aren't used to them to tell the difference between flesh and dead skeleton.

 

[dragonfisher33]

i will post as soon as i can aftet work, but is there a way to tell a live sps from a dead sps? I'm assuming the coral is not going to "open" up anytime soon since i just put it in my tank late last night

 

[MarinaClown]

I had the same concern when I bought my montipora digitata. Like you, I could not see any polyps. It ended up being fine.
I did some research on SPS and Monti digitata and Monti cap are some of the better starter SPS corals. Birdsnest, which I also have, is supposed to be an easier SPS coral.
4 of my 5 SPS corals are montipora (red Monti cap, green Monti cap, purple digitata and setosa) and the other one is pink birdsnest. All are frags. Low risk.

 

[mr_X]

Pure white skeleton would indicate dead. Color would indicate that it's living.

 

[dragonfisher33]

I had the same concern when I bought my montipora digitata. Like you, I could not see any polyps. It ended up being fine.
I did some research on SPS and Monti digitata and Monti cap are some of the better starter SPS corals. Birdsnest, which I also have, is supposed to be an easier SPS coral.
4 of my 5 SPS corals are montipora (red Monti cap, green Monti cap, purple digitata and setosa) and the other one is pink birdsnest. All are frags. Low risk.

funny you should mention monti. i got a frag of orange monti as well yesterday and at least i know it's alive because it's spitting out those "stringy slimes" when i put it in my tank along with the birdsnest.

 

[dragonfisher33]

Pure white skeleton would indicate dead. Color would indicate that it's living.

well, the birdsnest i got is whitish with some pink coloration at the tips of each "branch"

 

[MarinaClown]

A lot of it will depend on acclimation, your water, light and flow in addition to overall health of the coral. Time will show.

 

[mr_X]

well, the birdsnest i got is whitish with some pink coloration at the tips of each "branch"

Pink= alive.

 

[dragonfisher33]

Pink= alive.

for now(maybe)...i don't knowhow long iy takes for a birdsnest to lose color. it's been in my tank for less than 24hr, maybe i will know after a few days

 

[mr_X]

No, not maybe. Definitely. If sps is dead, all color will leave it and it will be nothing but pure white skeleton. A good example would be this pic-

The tops are now dead and the bottoms have a little life left in them.

 

[mr_X]

Lighting also plays a bit part here. What kind of lighting did they come from and what lighting do you have now? The coral may have looked a lot more colorful in the other guy's tank because his lighting was different.

 

[dragonfisher33]

Lighting also plays a bit part here. What kind of lighting did they come from and what lighting do you have now? The coral may have looked a lot more colorful in the other guy's tank because his lighting was different.

he has two LEDs and i have quad T5HO. but the color of the sps hasn't change much as far as the naked eye visual inspection goes. this is the frag rack from the seller and i got the first one from the right.

 

[mr_X]

You didn't post the pic.

 

[dragonfisher33]

what? i can see it in my last post, maybe something is blocking something? i don't know. but let's try one more time

 

[mr_X]

Can you just post the URL to it? I still don't see it.

 

[dragonfisher33]

so apparently i have exceeded my quota in terms of posting pictures. is there a way to get rid of some of the pictures?

 

[mr_X]

You could just sign up for a photobucket account. It's free and there's no quota. then you just paste the URL to the pic in the "insert image" box.

 

[dragonfisher33]

sorry, been busy with life this week. here's the link to the picture on photobucket

 

[Sniperhank]

Look bleached, but you can see the polyps and tissue at the tips.