Anything safe near Galaxia?

[weaglereefer]

Rescued this piece from the LFS (here in Auburn, not any of the ATL stores) for a very good deal. It's on the sand, well away from anything else (nearest coral is 8" +/- and that is the base of frogspawn and hammers). I don't mind having it by itself because I like the look, especially under actinics, but was curious if some xenia or shrooms would put up with its sting. I saw the sweepers for the first time today, only about 6" long (relatively low flow where it is) and the direction they were flowing was nowhere near anything else.

Here is the first pic, notice the skeleton showing in numerous spots. I'm hoping it'll recovery with some supplemental feedings. Any more info on these guys would be appreciated, as searching just turns up "don't buy it unless you have room" without much info about its care.

And if you don't have any info to provide, but wouldn't mind sharing success stories/pics of corals you rescued, feel free to post!

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[drnecropolis]

As far as I know, It will sting pretty much anything it can touch.. Those sweepers get super long also..

 

[weaglereefer]

Well, no biggie. Everything I've read says high flow = long sweepers, low flow = shorter sweepers. I was prepared when I got it and have it placed appropriately. Guess now I'll work on feedings.


One thing I noticed, the hard part of the coral looks like candy cane heads, but they don't close up at night like candy canes do, it's open 24x7, and I can't wait to get some blue moonlights on it to see how it looks.

 

[rolo65]

You could get another galaxia and watch them fight to the death!.....J/K.....but yeah +1 to Ansley......they do sting whatever they can......had one In my old 40hex and the sweepers got almost all the way across.....about 10" from the coral itself.....killed 2 heads on my frogspawn......I finally traded it but they do look pretty awesome under actinic lighting and blue moon LEDs

 

[porpoiseaquatics]

Ditto...I've read reports of the sweepers reaching 8 - 10" easily. From the looks of your pic, you could easily make a frag from this and keep one or the other. If you're thinking that the missing coral heads will come back...my experience says no. Some others may disagree with me.

 

[chymos45]

My galaxia is placed in an upper rear corner of my tank and the current at that location is "up and away" from everything else. Flow is pretty calm at that location, keeping the sweepers to 4"-6" max. Only casualty was a single head of a 4" or so blasto that used to be placed too close. I also have a leather that's pretty close, but the sweepers always flow away from the leather.

 

[budsreef]

I've had a fairly large one in my 120G for a year plus and I really liked it but I just removed it last month. The tentacles do get long and will sting everything including mushrooms. I had it sitting on the sand as you do in the corner under the vortech so the flow was pretty strong but it was upward towards the vortech so the tentacles couldn't extend out into the tank where it could sting anything.

They don't retract the normal tentacles unless they are touched and I think they are really hardy. I can't imagine what would have caused the kind of damage yours has. Since they grow pretty fast, I would cut the bad section off, then cut the bad off the smaller piece and both will heal over and become full beautiful pieces.

 

[weaglereefer]

Thanks for the tips. I may cut it, I may not. Guess I could give some freebies on here. The piece is currently about 9x7, and cutting the dead parts out would make it around 7x5.

porpoise, how much experience do you have with Galaxia to think the heads would not come back? I thought lots of LPS could regrow from just skeletons (plates, hammers, brains, etc) and I was hopeful with regular feedings and good conditions that this piece would recover the same.

I guess I'll give it a month or two and see if there is notable improvement before I decide to frag or not. Already discovered that it loves mysis.

 

[rockdog]

My Galaxia keeps one side of my GSP in check!!
If it can control that it can control anything...

 

[budsreef]

It won't recover the heads that are dead, but will eventually grow new over top of them so you'll have a big bump along that ridge. If you cut the dead off now it will be totally grown back with in a month or two.

 

[weaglereefer]

Well I don't want a bumpy ridge now, do I? Guess I'll break out the hammer and flathead when I get home.

 

[drnecropolis]

If you cut it up and give some away I would love to have a frag of it..

 

[haninja]

This was mine before the crash...

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The frogspawn didn't mind it at all. I too had the flow moving the sweepers mostly to the back of the tank. Occasionally they would touch the cup and sting it.

One thing for sure - put it higher then any other coral around it.

 

[budsreef]

Hopefully you're kidding about the hammer and chisel, it would probably shatter like glass. Best would be a band saw and second best circular saw.

au01st;481767 wrote: Well I don't want a bumpy ridge now, do I? Guess I'll break out the hammer and flathead when I get home.

 

[weaglereefer]

No, Bud, wasn't kidding. Haven't done it yet. Guess if I'm gonna be serious about this reefing thing I might invest in a band saw. Any good deals out there? Like, will one from Harbor Freight work? I know there's one by my parent's house.

 

[rockdog]

No you need a Diamond blade band saw, used for cutting glass, not wood. If you Make it out to Lawrenceville, Your welcome to use mine.

Jason

 

[budsreef]

As Jason said, it's not just a regular blade. I've used a cheap tile saw from Home Depot for quite a while and it works great but you don't get as fine a cut as with a band saw. Unfortunately, the band saw is a couple of hundred bucks versus about $80 for the tile saw. It will make a little cruder cut but you could also use a dremel if you have one.

au01st;482092 wrote: No, Bud, wasn't kidding. Haven't done it yet. Guess if I'm gonna be serious about this reefing thing I might invest in a band saw. Any good deals out there? Like, will one from Harbor Freight work? I know there's one by my parent's house.

 

[budsreef]

Too bad you aren't closer, I'm about ready to cut up the softball sized one I took out of my 120G.