? about buying acans

I'm going to the LFS on Friday and want to get an acan. I have never had one before, and it dawned on me, I don't know what to look for.

What AM I looking for? I can't even tell an acan from a favia.:

What are signs of a healthy one? Is there anything I should stay away from?

Any advice would be great! Thanks

 

usually they will be poofy..if they are acan lords..they should have good color and usually will have its feeder tentacle things out..usually..

you dont want to get one that looks like it may be melting..

if i were u i would bring a camera and snap a pic, post it and get the ok from everyone..

ive never had an acan die so i dont know what it looks like..

 

Make sure the polyps look fleshy and full. You don't want to be able to see the skeleton underneath them. Make sure it's not bleached at all, the colors should be vivid, not washed out, even the slightest bit. There shouldn't be any gaps between polyps, they should be touching when they're extended and fleshy as above. Make sure the guy (in case it's a random guy who doesn't really know) doesn't pick it up out of the water while extended, though, since the weight of the water can pull them from the skeleton.

The center right polyp on this one is *very* bad, while the others are what you're looking for in a healthy acan:


This is an acan with retracted polyps; you don't want to take a risk on these. This is right after it got put in my tank, though, so it was normal for it to look like this. It may also look like this after he retracts the polyps to bag it, and while it's in the bag:


This is a fully healthy acan. The half of a polyp you can see on the left side is a normal occurrence from fragging, and as long as those don't look like the other pics, they're fine:


Here's a more recent picture of the two above. The bottom one (rainbow) is currently recovering from a magnesium dosing incident, and is bleached. You can see it left and down from the torch coral:

 

acans and favia do look alike..but acans will have seperate heads if that makes sense..a favia is just a flat coral, but acans have serperate heads in a colony..kinda hard to explain it.

 

Start with Acan Lords ("poofy" I believe it was described as) Acan Enchinata is a bit more difficult to keep (water conditions). +1 on feeders out, good color (however that will depend on lighting as well), good price. Acan Lords are not generally expensive, and are not very difficult to find. If your LFS doens't have any nice ones, check out any of the Sponsor Coral Sites on 3Reef...lots of nice Acans.

I just got a Black Widow Acan Lord from Unique Corals.

 

if they are sucked in than that could be bad..when i buy them i want them to be poofy..

 

Just wan to highlight the fact that they can be rather expensive as well. The more colorful, the more expensive. This goes for both the brightness of colors, as well as the number of different colors on each polyp.

Buyers Hint: Save money by buying smaller frags, as opposed to things labeled as "colonies". Give them a few months, but frags will reach a nice size eventually.

 

That's why I used that "generally" word.

 

Noted, just wanted to point things out.

 

It is a valid point. AquaSD just put up some new Acans this morning...very colorful! I agree with the point of buying frags and letting them grow out. I got a 2 head frag last month, and it is sprouting 8 new head all around it. If conditions are right, they will grow relatively fast.