First Coral

[Ineubis]

Well, I bought my first coral on Monday, an "Octopus Coral", from the research I've done, it appears to be part of the Euphyllia Coral family (taken from: http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/cor...ofileresource/ )

I put it in my tank (a small 20g reef tank with 20 lbs. of live rock, 3 fish, and some hermits) and it's all closed up and not moving.

I told my friend who is also in the hobby, and he said "you didn't remove the coral from the water, did you?"

I said, "well I took it out of the bag, and put it in my tank."

He said that the coral will fill up with oxygen if removed from the water, and it can stun or kill the coral..

No one at the store I bought it from mentioned "DO NOT REMOVE FROM WATER OR IT WILL DIE!" so, what the heck?

Can coral die from being out of the water for 10 seconds tops?

[Hara]

yes it can

[Ineubis]

well, is it dead?

most of the tentacles were up, and have gone limp in the past two days...

here's a pic

[seaham358]

I can't make out what kind of coral that is? never heard of Octopus coral???
Euphyllia corals are hammers, frogspwans ect.. This is not a pic of one of them.
and the Euphyllia can be exposed to air with no issues. I have mine out all the time with no issues when doing a WC or fragging they are out in the air. I have only heard of issues with the spounge corals.
It is not uncommon for corals the retract the polyps for days after adding it too a new environment. if there dead you will see them melting or breaking up.

the one book I have has a frogspawn named as a octopus coral, this IMO is not a FS. I see no hard skelton, its all sofe tissue right??

[Ineubis]

well, the good news is, all of the tentacles were UP this morning!

I did not handle any of the tentacles when I placed it in my tank, but I did brush against it, and it's firm, not soft.

I'm optimistic that it will pull through.

I have a Coral Run & Reef Sun bulb in a twin-strip light, for lighting (specs available here: http://www.zoomed.com/html/lites.php ) temp is at 76° and I added Essential Elements brand Trace Elements to help it along.

I too have been looking this thing up online, and cannot find anything that looks like it.

Anyone else have a clue on ID'ing this? The photo does not capture the color well, it's a dull purple color, with traces of neon green inside of it.

[FishFrik]

That's one weird coral. Can you post some more pictures please?

[seaham358]

what kind of light do you have? Is it the strip light that came with the tank? Is it VHO?
Looking at your info your light will not be enough light for any corals.
If its the 24" twin strip light thats listed..

[Ineubis]

here are more pics for ID'ing purposes...sorry my camera is not the best.

from the side:



if you zoom in once or twice you on this one, you can see the tips of the tentacles, etc..:




As for my lighting...it's a $60 hood, with 2 $20 bulbs, one specific for lighting corals, and the other for reef aquariums....I would think a $100 light on 20 gallons is sufficient. I listed the bulb specifications in a previous post.

[FishFrik]

Wow, i've never heard or seen that coral before. Looks pretty cool though. Keep us update!

[demodiki]

A $60 hood and 2/$20 lights really doesn't say too much about what kind of light you have.