Coral Indentification (pic)

[jaded]

Can anyone tell me what this is? Under the living blue head there are hard "branches" (for lack of a better term). I've looked for this online and can't find anything quite like it

Jade

[Richard]

Can you get a closer pic? Are you talking about the green "branches"? Could be halimeda but it's hard to tell from the pic.

[Shark_Bait]

I'm no expert and I'm sure someone will chime in who knows more; but to me looks like a trumpet or candycane coral.

[Richard]

Are you asking about the coral or what's below it?

[jaded]

i think this shot is even worse, but maybe the different angle will help. I had to use a flash to get this shot so the colors are all washed out, but you can see more of the understructure, including the break from the fraging a few days ago.

[jaded]

Im asking about the coral. those items you pointed out are small feather dusters

[Richard]

Oh sorry, guess I read it wrong. Looks like caulastrea (trumpet, candy cane) to me.

[Richard]

Here's a link...
http://www.livestockusa.org/CAULA.html

[jaded]

yup... thats it, thanks

[GaryP]

Jade,

Its a very nice looking and healthy Caulastrea. Are you feeding it?

[jaded]

thats just ¼ of it... I just split it into 3 frags a few days ago... this is the smallest piece.

I feed Phyto every few days or so , other than that the tank is pretty well self sustained. I don't really do many water changes (compared to the posts I read here) so I do dose the tank once a month. I also feed the fish and other critters flake or frozen brine daily.

He's really looking great after the new bulbs. This was a donated tank so I don't know how old the bulbs were but they had to be completely gone judging from the color and growth just in the last couple of weeks of new bulbs

[GaryP]

You might want to try target feeding it some of the brine with a turkey baster.

[jaded]

Thanks I'll try that!!!

P.S. I made a little DIY feeder that I'm sure is no new idea, but works very well...

You take a length of rigid air line tubing and bend one end (I used a heat gun but anything would work). Then you attach it to a flavor injector or large syrnge with a piece of regular airline tubing. It works a lot better than the turkey baster for me.

[GaryP]

I useed to use a 60 cc irrigation syringe to feed with but didn't like the idea of getting into the tank. I'll try your idea.