cauliflower

[mkt]

I have a pink cauliflower coral that seems to be all shrunken.

Does not expand day or night....

Sometimes i wonder if it's still alive.

Has anybody experienced a similar situation with caulis?

Appreciate any remedial advices!

[monpire]

Yeah I have...was ok when I changed my light from Flourescent to PL 2 tubes...

You may wanna check your calcium...realised they don't stand up when it's too low...may be some other senior reefers can verify...I pretty new to this hobby too

gd luck

[shoelevy]

hmmm cauliflower is filter feeder.

it needs loads of plankton to survive.

sad to say i don't know anyone who has succeeded with it...simply cos its too tough to provide the supply of plankton without comprising water quality

[monpire]

Was wondering...how do we determine if we have success with coral...I read somewhere here that most coral die on the 6th months...does it mean that if it last longer than that , we should have no problem with it in the future? How long does others caul last? My is less than 4 months so still keeping my finger crossed...Bro shoelevy is rite, a few reefer I have the chance to interact with said that it's difficult to keep it for long term...similar to goniopora...

The joke is I only found out about cauliflower and goniopora after I've bought them...LOL

[nakazoru]

Pink Cauliflower is filter feeder indeed. They like to be under shades or in the underside of caves. Most of the time they hang up-side down the rocks.

It will be a silly thing to do by putting it upright and under light. They need to be fed micro-plankton. Like all filter feeder, a constant but not overly strong flow is required to direct food to it.

As most new tank does not have micro-plankton, so a very mature tank is require provide its food. Target feeding will be tough.

Placing marine snow in front in-line with the flow will also help.

[monpire]

Wahhhaaa....I did the silly thing "putting it up right and under direct light"....LOL. Thanks for the info Nakazoru...hmmm...will see if I can hang it upside down in my tank...well...learning something new everyday.

[mkt]

thanks for info!

Hmmm...why is target feeding a problem? It is because they can't catch the food

fed to them?

Cheers!

[nakazoru]

thanks for info!

Hmmm...why is target feeding a problem? It is because they can't catch the food

fed to them?

Cheers!

Target feeding is tough as it will be out of lights which normally meant at a hard to reach place. Too troublesome, and if you target feed with thick plankton, it will clog like a layer of dust on the target. And of course you cannot target feed constantly, as they feed constantly in the wild with constant current.

That is why I normally stay away from sun coral and all the filter feeder that does not need lights.

Clam on the other hand is filter feeder but also photo guy, so much easier.

[shoelevy]

That is why I normally stay away from sun coral and all the filter feeder that does not need lights.

Clam on the other hand is filter feeder but also photo guy, so much easier.

i 2nd that bro

seafan, sea squirt, sea apple, sponge, all i stay clear

[FionaFiona]

i 2nd that bro

seafan, sea squirt, sea apple, sponge, all i stay clear

I consider myself relatively new on thie hobby, but seafan and suncorals are wat i found to be the most easiest of all.

i only target feed on sun corals once a week. seafan i dun even bother and its growing by itself.

I dun have the strong enuf lightings for clams, so i dun touch clams.

SeaApple is like anemone... time bomb. haven seen sea squirt around b4...

[shoelevy]

i only target feed on sun corals once a week. seafan i dun even bother and its growing by itself.

learnt sth new today!

perhaps i can go get seafans to decorate my tank

bro/sis, do u place the seafan in areas of high flow?

[monpire]

Great info...I gonna get some sun coral too...yahoooo....oooo!

[Qxnviolet]

I leave mine in a high flow area and it seems to be doing ok. The 1st 1 i had, died within a week when i left it in an area w/o much flow. Hrmz, reminds me of the beautiful baby blue sea fans i saw at Pasir Ris last week, $50/pc....

[jonathan543]

hi juz smt to share wit u guys... i had a pink cauli... it was in a shrunken state.. c oso sian, for few weeks. then one day i decided to improvise a di resin container to my auto water top up system, it bloomed! all polyps came out, the expended tissue of a lighter pink and the polyps intense pink in colour! it even fully extend during night time!

then i thought the di resin was doing a great job of removing the impurities from the tap water(i used overnight tapwater for topup) and so the cauli bloom till so swee. other corals remained pretty much the same. so no comments on dat.

because i bz working ot for the past week, i din really take notice of the state of the tank, but the size of the cauli in the darken tank set my mind at rest every nite when i got home...

then few days later, close to 2weeks after fixing the di resin, i decided to switch on the tank lights to observe the ls... boy am i surprised! all my other corals are almost covered by long hair algae! layers of diatoms are oso observed at the sides of the tank, infact, thicker than usual... but the cauli still in full bloom....!

so i tested the water,po4= close to 1ppm using salifert test kit thrice!

and all this time i am running rowaphos!!

and so i checked my tapwater source- undetectable po4.

the water in the topup container- undetectable po4.

then i took some water samples coming out from the di resin- 1ppm+!

doesnt dat seemed as if the di resin was leaching out po4?

i changed 20% of the water, dumped the di resin & swap for polyfilter+rowaphos, the po4 came down within a day.

ever since dat day, all my corals recovered slowly but the pink cauli goes back to the shrunken state, bloomed at 1/3 it's previous size.

so how does it sounds? even my gonio oso bloom same time as the cauli, shrunken same time as the cauli... so should these corals be kept in a high nutrient oni tank? i think the red chili coral too... considering they seldom bloom swee swee in tanks... perheps someone should set up a "speciality" tank juz for keeping these corals?

[TntR2]

seems that these corals come hand in hand with algae ar? but i guess most reefers prefer a clean and nice look to their showpieces...

hai~ a bit regretted getting my pink cauli last week.. doesn't seem to 'erect' most of the time.. and can't seem to find a suitable place with overhanging caves and high flow for it..

think my cauli would be the last piece i'll ever get for myself.. hope it would survive..

[zorden]

me too have a pink cauliflower..

Normal color can survive but this pink cauliflower so far not successful and also it will turn black on the tip as if gonna burn.....

so far it think its easier to concentrate on LPS or SPS if u have the lights and good equipments rather than mix high nutrients and low nutrient coral together

[princesseve]

oh no... i oso juz bought one pink cauli few days ago...

ya.. sometimes it got shrunk till so flat and lifeless then sometimes onil stand half way...

haiz... now abit regret..

[Patrick]

Have you ever noticed Sponge and Cauli in LFS show tanks also don't survive long?