2 simple questions

[acasden]

purchased a porcelin crab that has made my open brain coral home, it never leaves it, can it harm the coral??

I have a had a leather with 3 stalks on a rock for about 3 wks. suddenly one of the 3 is darker, looks different, i quess there is nothing to do but wait and see. ??????????

 

[Len]

If your brain coral doesn't open up normally, it's being irritated too much and the crab should be removed. Otherwise, it'll be fine.

As for the leather, how much darker, and are the polyps still opening?

 

[Anonymous]

I agree with Len on the crab thing...Maybe try getting an E. Quadricolor (bubble tip anemone) or possibly a coral like Xenia..Im sure it would attach itself to Xenia and it wont irritate it too much...my clown seems to have adopted my Xenia without too much bother..It always gives you an excuse to buy new coral right :wink:

 

[acasden]

thanks, i have power compacts so i am not sure about the xenia, the leather is light brown, and the polyps are retracted for the most part, the other pieces are light yellow and the polyps are out. i will watch the brain and consider removing the crab, i think it is not opening fully like it was. thanks

 

[Carpentersreef]

Seeing as how you have power compacts, the bubbletip anemone would not be a good choice, btw.

Mitch

 

[PeeJ]

That depnds on the amount of lighting.

I had 520 watts of PC and kept a few anemones succesfully.

 

[Dubge]

I had xenia spread like a weed under PCs

Ray

 

[acasden]

thanks for all the help, i have 2 55 watt pc for a 75 tank, can i do a xenia??? the brain still seems to open and close at night, i moved the crab away and it came right back

as for the leather it is a clearly a darker shade, the polyps are not as open , could it be a lighting issue, that stalk is not in as much direct light as the others???

 

[BOMPH]

thanks for all the help, i have 2 55 watt pc for a 75 tank, can i do a xenia??? the brain still seems to open and close at night, i moved the crab away and it came right back

as for the leather it is a clearly a darker shade, the polyps are not as open , could it be a lighting issue, that stalk is not in as much direct light as the others???

I would say your lighting is very very low for most corals. I would dramatically increase the amount of lighting on your tank if you want to keep them thriving. 400 -500 watts of PC would be nice, you'd have the sun in you living room At that rate, you'd be better off getting a 250w metal halide setup for the same amount of money.

Thats just me.

 

[acasden]

oops, i have 4 55 watts for the tank, so far the corals look good, it has been 3 months.

 

[Anonymous]

ive kept an E.Quadricolor no problemo with PC's 130W...but i also only have a 20 gal...and yeah you can do Xenia..I have Xenia spreading like a weed under 130W...Everyone seems to think if you have 100000W of MH that everything can live in your tank, if you dont have 1000000W MH's than you cant do it...B.S.

 

[BOMPH]

Yeah, but there are also people who tried and it withered away. The more light you have, the more options you have. If something needs the light, you have it, if it doesn't, it will move itself, or you put it in the shade. You can make shade, you can't make light.

Im not saying you need all that light, or that you can't do it without it, but it opens up your options to have it. There will come the day when you need it.