Christmas Tree Coral/Madusa Coral

[seaham358]

Anyone have one of these and how long have you had it.
I did a spur of the moment buy with a coral today and after reading up on it they seem to be difficult to keep??? One site says moderate others say hard..
just wonder if anyone has had luck with one and what there feeding it.
My book says its a studeriotes longiramosa and a web site says its Sphaerella spp. They both look and sound like the coral I have..

thanks...

 

[TCTFish]

Well...we need to get a positive ID...on your end. Do you have a photo you can post?

One of those corals looks like a close relative of the carnation coral, which is different from the Xmas tree coral. Here's a way to find out if you don't have a photo for us...

When the coral closes up does it look like a sphincter? Teehee...I'm not kidding LOL.

Both would rather be in low light and therefore require more phytoplankton (target feed everyday) and extra water flow is important. The carnation relative (sorry I don't have my book with me so I don't have a specific name) are like rock creepers. They will creep their arms along the rocks. The other (the sphincter) isn't so demanding for as much food and best placed directly in the sand.

 

[seaham358]

liveaquaria has a pic of the coral. Right now mine is not open that much so I have not taken a pic yet. It's the one that closes up tight looking like a little potato on the sand bed. I have read different things on the net about them and I was looking to see if anyone had one and could tell me what their experiance was /is with the coral.

thanks.

 

[TCTFish]

I had a tiny one in a 2.5 nano once and did just fine. Stood barely 2" when opened. It got fed every other day and the lighting was a mini compact flourescent by All Glass (the ones that screw into incandescent fixtures). Got a water change a few times a week (about a betta cup full). The filter was a little whisper filled with crushed pieces of live rock.

Someone told me they don't like a lot of light. I don't know how accurate this is personally. That little one was the only one I had. Kept it for months but had to take the tank down. We got a new register system and we had too many things plugged to the same curcuit breaker so we kept popping the fuse. A few things got taken down...LOL. I sold the coral to a guy who is a member of a local fish society who also has a nano tank.

Good luck with it.

BTW...that is the sphincter...LOL.

 

[seaham358]

finally got around to taking a pic of this weird coral. This is the biggest I have seen it open in a while....

 

[Scottm]

you've got some of the same mushrooms I do in that picture, those things are great for just carpeting rocks. good luck with that coral it is awesome looking.

 

[seaham358]

those hairy shroons are nasty mean suckers. They sting everything around and have pushed back other shroons I have. I will be thinning them out soon.

 

[ZoozFishMaster]

I believe those Christmas Tree Corals are non photosynthetic. You should probably target feed it a few times a week. FWIW, my LFS had one for months and it looked great...I don't even think they target fed it. HTH and Good Luck!

 

[TCTFish]

Hi SeaHam . Yes that is a tree coral and I do agree about them being non photosynthetic so extra feeds would do them good...also a little extra water flow.

BTW, those hairy mushrooms make great borders for xenia and other 'take over' type coral, so they can serve a purpose other than looking pretty...LOL.