Reef Discussion

[Ziggy]

I'd appreciate your thoughts please folks. I bought a gorgeous new Cataphyllia coral today, lovely bright green with purple tips. I've never owned one before so have been doing lots of research.

I'm a bit worried about how best to place him on the sand bed. Currently, the bottom of his skeletal wedge is buried in my shallow sandbed and the skeleton on his underneath side is resting on a small piece of live rock so that his bottom tentacles aren't buried in the sand. However, those bottom tentacles are still against the sand (looking slightly squashed I think) and I'm concerned about them scraping and developing brown jelly disease.

Should I wedge him more vertically with a bit more LR under one side so he's at a more acute angle to the sandbed?????

 

[Oceanarium]

Beautiful specimen :)

So long as it is not buried under the sand it should be fine, just be care full it does not get buried from the sand moving. They are much tougher than the reputation they have. I don't ever recall having a brown jelly episode with one.

A lot of information suggests they should be kept on the sand, though they are equally happy on the reef top. In the wild they all need to start life by settling to a solid substrate, after they become massive storms often break bits off or even dislodge the whole colony from the reef where they can live happily on the sand. Because a lot are found on the sand like this it is said this is the preferred habitat.

IMO they do equally well each way.

 

[Ziggy]

Awesome, thanks so much. I must admit that I have never liked Cats much, I thought they were a bit odd and ugly to be honest but I'm utterly in love with this one :)

 

[daveH]

I started with mine on the sand but it never really took off until I placed it half way up my rocks and let it hang. That's what it really liked and is huge now.

 

[Andrew B]

i just got the exact same elegance too :) i love it

 

[MagicJ]

I don't think Brown Jelly disease is a problem with cats, although they are known to bail out of their skeleton if they aren't happy, which is normally still fatal.