Care and feeding - acans and blasto's?

[lanman]

I asked once before - but everyone must have been out of town?

 

Would like suggestions on the care and feeding of Acan's and Blastomussa's. That would be Blastomussa Wellsi; the Blastomussa Merletti that I have seems VERY easy to care for.

 

My Acans survive - but they don't thrive. My Blasto's seem to slowly fade away into the sunset.

 

Light? Flow? Food?

 

Someone must be having good luck with these things - what seems to work??

 

Thanks,

bob

[six-line]

Bob,

Same here, I do spot feed them with cyto-feez (SP?). I was told the the blastos will not do well in systems that have high NO3, which mine does. :( my acans seem to be holding in there and enjoy feedings but there are the same number of heads as when I got them almost a year ago. hopefully someone eles can help us both out. Thanks.

[gastone]

I've got more experience with blastos than acans. With blastomussa wellsi I keep them in low light and low to moderate flow. I feed them weekly (at least) with a mixture of mysis, cyclopeeze, oyster eggs and selcon. My merlettis, wellsis and acan lords all readily devour the mix. As far as wellsi growth, they do not seem to grow well for me. In similar conditions I've had one small colony grow slowly while the other has slowly lost polyps (started with about 9, down to about 4 over the course of two years or so). I've read that as they are generally collected in deeper water they like lower temps (mid 70's) lower light (I keep mine under an overhang... way under an overhang) and lower flow (enough to keep sediment off of them but not so much as to cause the polyps to close). I've read way too many stories over on RC about blastos fading away. In the future I won't acquire any more wellsi. Just not worth it IMO.

 

On the other hand, IME acans are quite hardy. They are more tolerable of different lighting and flow. I keep them under both T5s and halides and they seem quite adaptable under either one. Acclimation to higher light should be done slowly though. I feed them at night when the tentacles are out (in fact one of my frags has extended tentacles almost all day long and is definitely the fastest growing of my frags). They get fed at least twice a week if not three or four times.

 

Garrett.

[jnguyen4007]

I assume the feeding for the acan is the same as for the micromusa. As far as the location for them, I have mine sits on the sandy bottom of the tank. Is that OK or does it needs to sit on a rock or does it not matter?

 

James

[davelin315]

I had a Blastomussa wellsi that I bought at a store that was using at as base rock years ago. It had the hint of a couple of polyps on it and I put it into my reef. I had it about halfway down in a 125 under PC lamps (96W bulbs) and it recovered and did fantastic, even started growing more polyps. I didn't ever feed it, although I periodically dumped in some DT's phytoplankton, but that was not very often and it was never directed at this coral. It was in decent flow, not shaded. It still did well when I also added on some MH 175W bulbs. I did have one polyp that disconnected and floated off somewhere, but otherwise it was fine. Nowadays, with whatever LPS I have, I simply dump some pelleted food on them when I feed and hope that they get to eat it. I figure that it doesn't hurt them to have food supplied to them and the pellets will sit there and are easily digested. I also will spray mysis on them as well as cyclopeez, but they aren't always successful in getting it into their mouths.

[bprinehart]

Same here, I feed mine a mix of mysis, cyclopeeze, and some times I will grate up a couple very tiny pieces of a basic seafood mash recipe I found somewhere about 6 months ago. I usually direct feed them once a week, but from observing flow in the tank, I'm sure they eat consistently via leftovers from the fishies. I treat my Duncanos pretty much the same way. I have all of my LPS sitting just outside the 2 square foot "box" of my 250W 20,000K DE MH lights intensity, and in the only really moderate flow area of the tank, a neat little eddy in the front right corner. My Blastos (Merletti), which I got from Steveoutlaw, are growing like crazy. I've gone from 1 to 3 polyps on the "candy cane" Acans, and my Duncanos from BRK have gone from the initial 2 to 6 now, plus a new little baby starting to poke his head out from one of the main stalks, in the space of about 4 months.

 

I have heard the same things from numerous people though, some people have great luck, and others not so much. I "seem" to have a knack for the LPS though.

 

 

I've got more experience with blastos than acans. With blastomussa wellsi I keep them in low light and low to moderate flow. I feed them weekly (at least) with a mixture of mysis, cyclopeeze, oyster eggs and selcon. My merlettis, wellsis and acan lords all readily devour the mix. As far as wellsi growth, they do not seem to grow well for me. In similar conditions I've had one small colony grow slowly while the other has slowly lost polyps (started with about 9, down to about 4 over the course of two years or so). I've read that as they are generally collected in deeper water they like lower temps (mid 70's) lower light (I keep mine under an overhang... way under an overhang) and lower flow (enough to keep sediment off of them but not so much as to cause the polyps to close). I've read way too many stories over on RC about blastos fading away. In the future I won't acquire any more wellsi. Just not worth it IMO.

 

On the other hand, IME acans are quite hardy. They are more tolerable of different lighting and flow. I keep them under both T5s and halides and they seem quite adaptable under either one. Acclimation to higher light should be done slowly though. I feed them at night when the tentacles are out (in fact one of my frags has extended tentacles almost all day long and is definitely the fastest growing of my frags). They get fed at least twice a week if not three or four times.

 

Garrett.

[jnguyen4007]

Same here, I feed mine a mix of mysis, cyclopeeze, and some times I will grate up a couple very tiny pieces of a basic seafood mash recipe I found somewhere about 6 months ago. I usually direct feed them once a week, but from observing flow in the tank, I'm sure they eat consistently via leftovers from the fishies. I treat my Duncanos pretty much the same way. I have all of my LPS sitting just outside the 2 square foot "box" of my 250W 20,000K DE MH lights intensity, and in the only really moderate flow area of the tank, a neat little eddy in the front right corner. My Blastos (Merletti), which I got from Steveoutlaw, are growing like crazy. I've gone from 1 to 3 polyps on the "candy cane" Acans, and my Duncanos from BRK have gone from the initial 2 to 6 now, plus a new little baby starting to poke his head out from one of the main stalks, in the space of about 4 months.

 

I have heard the same things from numerous people though, some people have great luck, and others not so much. I "seem" to have a knack for the LPS though.

 

I got my candycane from one of the members about a month after I got my 30 gal tank growing. That must have been around 6 or 7 months ago. Anyway, at the time, I got it with something like 4 polyps on it. It grew so much that it broke off from the rock that I glued it on. It's been sitting on the bottom of my tank since and it now has something like over 20 polyps on it.

 

James