Care of Blastomussa?

[Rcpilot]

I know I shouldn't have done it, but I bought a blasto frag without knowing how to care for it.

It's redish purple with green centers. About 8 polyps on this frag.

From what I've been reading, they require medium lighting--not direct lighting. They are photosynthetic, but may eat brine shrimp. They require stable levels of calcium, pH and alkalinity (what coral doesn't?)

My parameters are stable. I'm running my pH at 8.4 and got my alkalinity at about 4.4--4.6. Calcium is still about 450. Specific gravity is 1.026

I have 144w of T5 on my 30g high tank. Tank is 24" tall. Fairly well lit, but not crazy. 4.8w per gallon.

:bounce:

They are midway in the tank now. About 12" under the water. Light is 4" above the surface of the water. So, about 16" below the light.

Should I just set them on a rock and wait for them to secure? Or leave them on the frag rack for now?

 

[yote]

I've never kept Blastos.But I dont see them being any different than other LPS coral.
Put that baby on a rock and let it grow.
Congratulations BTW.

 

[reeffreak]

Errrrrr..........you answered your own question Rc.Beautiful babies and put it on a larger rock before you have to cut it off the eggcrate.

 

[Rcpilot]

Just curious if any of the resident "expurts" might be able to shed more light on care of these LPS.

It's difficult to search endlessly on the net and find only bits and pieces of info on care of some of these corals. Just thought somebody might have a few in their tank and could help me out.

I've moved it to a low spot about 4" off the sand bed and in moderate current. 10K lights just went out and it looks friggin' cool as sheit!! It's all turquoise/green and glowing!!

 

[Bifferwine]

I have kept both types of blastos (merletti and wellsi). Looks like you got a nice piece of wellsi.

They are easy corals to keep. Some sites say they WILL take supplemental feeding, but most sites say they WILL NOT accept extra food. Mine have never taken any sort of mysis or brine during feeding time, and my wellsi grew very quickly and spread very quickly too without any extra feeding.

You are correct in that they don't like a lot of light (they are typical LPS in that respect). They also don't like a lot of flow.

Good luck, blastos are probably my favorite type of LPS!

 

[Rcpilot]

Now thats helpful!! Thanks Biff!! :Cheers: I didn't even know what kind I had. Now I know.

My goby buried both of my featherdusters a couple weeks ago and killed them. They were attached to a rock and the goby started digging under that rock. He decided to make a new burrow under the rock and he just kept spitting rocks on top of my dusters. Nothing I could do. Can't cut the dusters off the rock--can't stop the goby from digging. 2 dead dusters. :frustrat:

I needed to replace those dusters with something and this blasto frag was cheap. $12 I like blastos too. Kinda like a big zoa with a hard shelled stalk/body. I've had my eye on some blastos for some time now, but just never seen them in the store at the right time or didn't have the money at the time. Today was good. I saw some in the color that I liked and I had the money.

 

[Bifferwine]

Are yours the size of zoa polyps with a hard stalk? If so, they are blastomussa merletti. They looked larger from the pics.

Google blastomussa wellsi and blastomussa merletti to be sure which kind you have.

 

[Rcpilot]

Thats 1/2" egg crate in the pic that I posted.

They have a hard shell or stalk on the shaft/tubular part of the body.. Right now, the heads are about 1/4" across, but in the store they were about 1/2" across. I don't think they have opened up completely in my tank.

 

[Doc]

I have a rock of red blastos and I was told they like a lot of light. they were pretty small when I had them on the bottom of the tank, but when I placed them high up on the rocks, they started blooming almost twice the size. maybe it is a different variety. Just my experience

-Doc

 

[Bifferwine]

Mine HATE a lot of light and don't ever open up if they are high up in the tank.

 

[Grassman]

I bought one a couple weeks ago without knowing how to care for them either. I read they are deep water corals and don't like light so I glued them to a piece of rock shaded by another rock. To get the upper rock to be secure I had to put one polyp in the light and the other in the shade. The one that was shaded died and the one in the light is twice the size it was before. I also read they were slow growing. If twice the size in 2 weeks is slow, I'd hate to see fast. I should have read this thread first.

 

[rdahlke1105]

Wow you guys really amaze me at times with how much you know. I have been seeing blastos on the different coral sites I go to (learning as much as I can) and didn't know either how to care for them. Thanks for all of the information.

 

[bjohanson1234]

I bought one a couple weeks ago without knowing how to care for them either. I read they are deep water corals and don't like light so I glued them to a piece of rock shaded by another rock. To get the upper rock to be secure I had to put one polyp in the light and the other in the shade. The one that was shaded died and the one in the light is twice the size it was before. I also read they were slow growing. If twice the size in 2 weeks is slow, I'd hate to see fast. I should have read this thread first.

Usually the growing part is growing new polyps. A LPS coral will expand and contract based on different factors. You just noticed that he is bigger because for what ever reason, he has taken up more water than what he had when you first got him.