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don't know much about acans. are they hard to take care of? are they hard or have soft polyps? Nice pick ups by the way. will be interesting to see once they grow out a bit
Type: Large Polyp Stony
Family: Mussidae
Origin: Indo Pacific
Aquarium Needs:
Lighting: Acanthastrea Lordhowensis are a hermatypic/photosynthetic coral. They require moderate to high lighting. Power compact lighting may be used but ideally T-5 & Metal Halide fixtures will prove more beneficial. Water Quality: Acanthastrea Lordhowensis are more tolerant of changes water quality making them an excellent coral for beginners. Though they are more tolerant, a stable environment is obviously better for the prolonged health & well being of these creatures. Due to the heavy feeding requirements, a strong protein skimmer is recommended. Activated carbon as well as items such as ozone generators can help as well. Current: Acanthastrea Lordhowensis require medium to strong water movement. Excessive flow on the animal can cause polyp retraction or in worst-case polyp bailout (polyps actually detach from their skeleton).
Classification: Acanthastrea EchinataDescription: An LPS, or Large Polyp Stony coral. This coral has shared corallite walls unlike its close relative Acanthastrea lordhowensis. Outer edges of the polyps are raised slightly above the inside (mouth). Colors vary tremendously. They can be any color or any mixture of any number of colors. Can be seen encrusting over live rock or plating.
There are MANY websites with descriptions. My post had info from two differrent site. GOOGLE is your friend. Type in "ACAN coral" and choose from thousands of web sites..
He has plently more available. I may get some more. They are looking much better now that they are acclimated to the tank and lights. I'll post more pics over the weekend.
be careful not to have another coral bump into them though. they will eat the flesh off of it faster than you can say "yikes, my 100 dollar frag!"
i lost half of an ORA green polyp birdsnest when it was knocked over by my algae blenny, into a lord colony. it must have been lying against it for about an hour when i found it. it was pure white skeleton by then.
I've got a quite a way to go before my single polyps turn into a colony. So far only my turbo snails have been able to over my acros. One of them recently knocked one off it's plug and I had to re-glue it.
i give them an assortment. sometimes misis, sometimes cyclo-peeze(the frozen type), and sometimes i give them a home-made mixture(shrimp, scallops, clams...whatever i could get from the supermarket, all blended together)
Agree... they don't need them, but they sure seem to grow quick when you do spot feed them. I give mine a squirt of mysis/cyclopeeze once a week when I'm feeding the fish. Feeding during the day is just fine - they'll open up and devour stuff really quick.