My brain coral does some weird things:

breebauer

Reefing newb
This is my brain coral normally:
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This is just after I spot fed him some mysis (you can kind of see them inside his mouth, and the ones that missed):

11-19-07020.jpg




This is what happens when I feed my fish some mysis and flakes (I guess he brain gets to eat whatever falls on him):

11-23-07019.jpg




Then he kind of stays swelled up for a while:

11-23-07037.jpg



It takes only a few minutes to go from the 1st picture to the 3rd picture, but about 2 hours, to go back to normal. I've only been feeding him once a week. But I guess he gets some leftovers from the fish.

I just thought it was weird the way that he almost turns completely inside out.

Does anyone else's brain coral do that?
Just wondering....
 
very normal for corals to shoot tenticles when eating. They feed all the time with light, but when the lights go out or food is present, they send out feeder tubes to grab solid food as well. Don't worry about it.

-Doc
 
Yep. I have a different species of brain, but after he eats he will shrink down to 1/4 of his normal size.

Yours looks very healthy, good tentacle extension.
 
Ok, thanks!

My other corals show off their tentacles when feeding, but the first time I saw the brain do this I thought he was going to explode!

It really almost turns itself all the way inside out. Very weird...
 
I have exactly the same brain,a Trachyphillia geoffroyi.I use to feed it once a week also but stopped about 5 months ago.It seemed to be just as big and fat as it was back then.
 
Ok, new question:
Should I stop spot feeding it?

I was told that I should feed it once in a while. (It's getting the scraps from my fish, anyway.)

Does it grow if you feed it, or does it just stay the same size either way?
 
mine is a super slow grower. feeding it should not hurt anything. i just stopped because i got tired of spot feeding every night. i even fragged up my sun polyps and sold them so i didnt have to feed them anymore.

i never really noticed a growth ragte change when feeding it and it still looks the same as when i got it. a little bigger but nothing to write home about. i have had it for about 3 years now and it might have grown an inch or so (the skeleton) since i bought it.
 
I would not feed it. Most corals do not need target feeding. In fact, they can eat themselves to death if they are overfed. They filter out what they need from the water column during regualr feedings. They will not turn down food though and will devour whatever you give it and can kill it if fed too much. Daily is too much. Just let it glean from the water I have been doing it for almost three years and haven't lost a coral due to starvation yet.

-Doc
 
very nice brain!!..mines does exactly the same...i guess they sense when food is in the water..nice green neon yours has!!
 
Spot feeding is up to you.I would minimize it as much as possible.Once a week should be good.

For me,I figured if I don't need to feed then its better not to.Feeding just adds more waste.Mine looks the same rather I feed it or not.
 
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