Reef Discussion

[marineclass]

Has anybody had experience with sea fans? I think they look amazing but havnt seen much of it in tanks before. Are they too hard to keep in tanks or would it be similar to other hard corals?

 

[marineclass]

[Broken External Image]:http://www.scubaduba.com/janosi/redseafancrinoid.jpg

 

[MagicJ]

I have no direct experience Jonathon but I believe the key points for success are:

• obtain a healthy, undamaged specimen with a piece of the original substrate still attached.
• Do not allow any other corals to come into contact - the sea fan will likely lose any such encounter
• Have strong water movement
• Supplemental feeding is a must, and this will usually be after lights out when most of the feeding apparatus will be extended.

This last point is probably why they are not very successful in a home tank.

 

[marineclass]

thanks for that - they just look amazing! maybe one day haha:confused:

 

[Dynamic]

How big do they grow?

 

[nick_s_h]

They are actually alot easier than you think;
Provide STRONG flow (the coral should be visibly moving) to prevent algae/detritus settling on the coral - this is a common killer.
Ive read that they turn/grow to "fan" against the direction the flow is coming from?
Ive never target fed mine (i have 2, and will be getting more for the new tank) but feed the tank alot and ive seen some of the other corals eating the small food particles floating around left over from the fish, so maybe the fan has been doing the same?
Nick :)

 

[marineclass]

interesting nick. can you post some pics, id love to see them. Good to hear its achievable

 

[nick_s_h]

To be honest SPS in general are allot harder than sea fans, and far more sensitive, then there are suncorals/gonioporas etc are even harder to look after.
Sea fans are easy :) Theres a pic of the bigger one in my tank journal.

 

[Jonny Glover]

Sps are only hard if you don't have good conditions and stable paremeters. Sea fans are generally quite sensitive to the water flow around them because of the nutrients they need.

 

[Dr. Schell]

they look like you algae ;)