Hi there does any one Know the correct name for this brain coral. I did get told at the LFS but I,ve forgot

Also is it best on the rocks or on the sand bed. Its going to be under 7 VHO (4 14000k whites and 3 atanics)
and the water depth is 500mm/20" from the water surface to the top of the sand bed.

Put it in the sand bed to start, if you like later you can move it up in the rockwork. Its a Lobophyllium genus coral, not sure which species exactly but most are similar in care requirements. They will NOT tolerate point-flows and do best under moderate flow conditions. Too strong and their flesh can/will suffer. They are difficult to keep in that they require very good water chemistry (high calc/alk/mg, low DOCs, stable salinity) to survive longterm.

When I got up this morning at 5:30 quite a few of it mouths had a small fan out of them grabbing at the water for food. I put some frozen cyclopeze in which they where grabbing at and eating eagerly. It was quite amazing how quick the fan was taking food into the mouth and back out again with no food on it for another bit of food.

I do have another brain coral in the tank which I have had for about 6 months which is doing well. It is a different type to this one though that one is a Lobophyllia hemprichii. This eats in a totally different manner though.

Yup, is you other brain of the Trachyphillia (spelling?) genus? Maybe radiata or geffroi?

symphyllia (sp). a very nice one at that. Wait till you see it feed at night. you won't even recognize it.

are the red dots cyclopseeze?

This post has been edited by Adrinal: Nov 1 2007, 04:13 AM

Thanks for the ID. All I,ve seen is the small fans coming out the mouths on a night so far grabbing at the freshly hatched brine shrimp and cyclopeze. What else do they do or am I going to get up in the middle of the night

Yes the red dots are cyclopeeze

Gaz,

Try your hand at feeding a little frozen food, even squirt some on the coral during the daylight. Then wait ~15 mins. The coral should extend its feeding tentacles when it "tastes" food in the water. Once that happens, feed more frozen and even turkey-baste some onto the tentacles and watch it chow down

good luck feeding the corals when you have shrimp....

I've feed mine everything... even let it have a fish that didn't make it in a shipment (not advised).

Its easy to over feed these guys because they can take in large objects... but that doesn't mean they are consuming all of it. They will start to open in the day if they are consistantly getting food. Put a tiny bit of food in the water, give it 5 minutes and then really feed.

There is quite a bit of flesh on these brains, this is one coral I DO suggest feeding... but ocasionally. Cyclopseeze is obviously good, mysis and such as well.

Its cool you are feeding live stuff, one thing I haven't delved into. Live food has the greatest chance of getting to the coral before dying and fouling the water.

I belive oyster eggs are next, but they are only boyant for so long. I do keep a host of peppermints and large cryptic zone for pod spawning

Mine hasn,t opened up fully yet I have just put some food in for the fish and it half threatend to open. Its mouths sort of started to protrude out and then its tenticle bits started to show. Only for about a minute then it went back to normal,

Maybe its still getting used to the tank still. Apart from that it looks healthy enough . It does catch Cyclopseeze on a night when its fans are out though