Anyone have an opinion about Chili Coral?

[AuntKaren]

I did a search here on Chili and Chili Coral and couldn't find, necessarily, any in depth information on them. One of my favorite LFS's is going out of business and I've brought home a 6" around red finger, or chili coral. Is it non photosynthetic? Do I feed it as I would a sun coral? Can you tell me about this coral please? I am happy to hand feed the coral I just want to know more about it. I've seen Chili Corals offered on other sites but of course now I can't find the sites LOL.

I know, RESEARCH before you buy and you can find me in the Badgirl chair in the corner over there --------->

Help me find info on thes gorgeous specimine! I'd take a pic but our tank is pretty cloudy right now as hubby did some aqua scaping and the dust hasn't settled enough yet.

Hellllllppppp!

[seahorsedreams]

I love my chili! Here's a pic a took a couple of days ago. He's in a hard place for me to grab a pic because there is a stress bow in the acrlyic in that one spot... blurs the picture.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y248/seahorsedreams/Our%20Corals/chilicoral.jpg

He is all out in "bloom" before the lights go on. Soon as the actinics come on he starts retracting.

Yes, he is non photosynthetic. You can feed him cyclopeez or BBS. Yes, you can feed him much like the tubastrea except it is better to bath him in the food verses laying the food on the polyps.

Turbulent flow is very important. Don't stick him directly in front of a laminar type flow.... it needs to hit him from different directions.

A refugium is very beneficial to him. We've had a pod bloom and he has been SO stinking happy!

As you can see in the pic, mine is facing the wrong direction. They should be hung upside down for continued success. But we just moved and this is a temporary tank.... he will be placed upside down in his permanent home.

[lReef lKeeper]

Alcyonium sp.

Common Name: Chili Coral, Chili Sponge, Red Finger

Lighting: N/A, non-photosynthetic

Aggressiveness: Low

Current: Medium to Strong

Hardiness: Moderate, good for aquarists with at least 6 months reef
keeping experience.

Region: Indo Pacific on reef slopes with strong current. Also found
in lagoons with strong tidal currents in shady areas attached to hard
substrate.

Description: Small colony size, not generally reaching over 6 inches tall with finger like lobes or branches, extends small white feeding polyps. Colors can be red, orange, or purple.

Since this coral is non-photosynthetic (does not feed on light and contains no zooxantheallae) it must be fed on a regular basis. Any phytoplankton, zooplankton, micro food, and brine shrimp is accepted.

Due to this coral not getting overly large it is an excellent candidate for the smaller nano reefs. If placed in a nano reef, point feeding with a small eye dropper or plastic needled syringe is recommended, as free floating food is undesirable.

info taken from http://www.nano-reef.com/corals/?coral=6

[seahorsedreams]

Cheater! LOL.

[AuntKaren]

LOL Bobby gave me that info in a pager msg too. He's covering all the bases just like I did. (I paged him pleading for help LOL) It looks like mine, when it opens, will be huge because all closed up it is about 6" across! I've put him in a small cave but I think if he opens out he'll push himself out onto the floor.

We are aquascaping the tank right now so today I will be sure that we make a deep enough cave for him to open. I plan to turn off the water circulation for feeding and innundate him with dinner. It sounds like it eats small foods like zooplankton...isn't that a supplement? I know cyclopeeze is a supplement but I feed it to my tanks regularly anyway. Our serpent stars come right out when cyclopeeze is in the column they are waving their arms like Chiefs Fans LOL!

Keep the opinions coming, please, y'all always come up with great solutions! Bobby and Dreams....I can always count on you, Thanks!

[seahorsedreams]

Borneman recommends Oyster eggs are also good.

You're aware of it's long term survival odds, right?

[AuntKaren]

Yes, I'm aware it's long term survival is iffy but now that I have it I am going to give it my best! My near death sun coral rescue was a great success and the chili coral is in good health at this point. That's why I am asking so many questions in forums to gather information to give this little guy a good shot!

Where can I get oyster eggs? I've not seen them at my LFS nor have I seen them in the saltwater catalogs I receive. :-)

[seahorsedreams]

Marine depot carries the oyster eggs HERE. (http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=DT1311)

It's the same peeps who put out DTs. If your LFS carries DTs see if they will bring in the oyster eggs.

I'm just another person trying to give it a shot. I really do try to avoid buying things with such a low success rate.... but every now and then a persons gotta try, right?

[Sweetpea]

Just FYI... I use the oyster eggs, and everything seems to love them! That and cyclopeeze always gets an amazing feeding response in my tanks...

BTW, for those who tired their samples of Reef-roids... what are your thoughts? I didn't notice much here on my end.

[seahorsedreams]

K, what reef rods... hadn't heard about them.

[Sweetpea]

Check out the web site: http://www.polyplab.com/reefroids.html

They did some mass marketing a while back and sent out loads of samples. Several folks here got some. We all said we'd report back, but I don't remember hearing much about it...

[lReef lKeeper]

tracy ... maybe you should make a thread and poll to get the outcome of the reef-roids !! i remember that but missed the deadline, and am kinda interested in how it worked out !!

[seahorsedreams]

They totally passed me by! I hadn't heard of them!

[AuntKaren]

OK the chili coral (AKA Pedro) is now hanging upside down in a gorgeous cave. He's not opened even an hour after lights were all out but the moonlight. I'm wondering when to start worrying about him not opening. I figure that I'll start being concerned at a week and worried at 10 days LOL. Thanks for the heads up on where to get oyster eggs!

I do have cyclopeeze and feed it to the tank sparsely at this point as there is only one tiny chromis in the tank but the serpent stars come out waving their arms like crazy when I do add it. Should I shoot some under Pedro to see if I can entice him out?

[Sweetpea]

tracy ... maybe you should make a thread and poll to get the outcome of the reef-roids !! i remember that but missed the deadline, and am kinda interested in how it worked out !!
Okay, just added the poll... thanks for the idea, Bobby!