Open Brain Coral Question~?~?~

Okay my dad just bought a new Brain coral a multicolor brain looks like a Trachyphyllia geoffroyi.

But i noticed our old brain same family just white is dieing and i don't want that to happen to the new one.. i am reading they like Calcium.. How do i feed them Calcium??? I attached a picture of the old brain.

The picture i attached is a old picture when it was healthy. My other question is there any way i can nurse the brain back to health?

I will go take pictures now and attach them in the next post.

 

Calcium should be in the water, not fed. Feed open brains 3-5 times a week at night w/ mysis shrimp. That's the biggest cause of them dying; they eat alot compared to other corals.

 

More pictures

Here are a few pictures of the new and old Brain.

First two are the old brain last two are the new brain sorry for bad pic camera battery are charging!

 

So the reason why they are dieing is because they don't get fed enough?

I know more coral feed at night then during the day. but Brains are just weird. lol

 

whoa, you need to know your calcium and atleast your KH to have a brain coral. If you arent using a salt mix that has calcium, magnesium, and trace elements your corals will quickly die.. I use reef crystals salt mix and it alone keeps my levels high with minimal dosing of calcium, buffer, and MG.. Also, I hate to tell you this, but that other one is on its way out. Once they separate from the skeleton its a slow death for them. sorry to say..

 

Yep no problem knew it was done. should we just throw it out?

 

I wouldn't trade one form of suffering for another, but that's me personally.

Make sure you target feed the new one alot, at least a mysis shrimp or 2 to each mouth (one of mine has 4 mouths, I can't see on yours) 3-5 times a week, or else it will die slowly like the first one.

They're hardly photosynthetic compared to any other corals. They're basically non-photosynthetic, as a matter of fact. I think they get ~20% of their food from their zooxanthellae, which is nothing.

EDIT:
I just noticed you have them on rocks. Get that brain off of the rocks. They need to be on the sand. Their tissue will get damaged up there when they expand during the day. Make sure none of it is shadowed, and is farther away from the light if possible.

 

I have a question about feeding brains. All the research I've done says to feed at night while the tentacles are out. Well my brain never sends tentacles out at night. I check all the time! How am I supposed to feed it mysis?

 

I would look closer, the tentacles on my brain, which is 4" across, are about 1/16th of an inch long. They're easy to miss lol. They're around the rim where mine changes color. You can't see them in this pic, but I'll take one tonight for you of the actual tentacles, if my camera will work with me.


If you still don't see tentacles, try moving it to somewhere with lower flow. I have 2 brains, one is in a near-zero flow area and the other is in a low-moderate indirect flow area....the one with near-0 flow got acclimated to the tank much, much quicker than the other one. The other one took 2 weeks to start putting out tentacles, likely because of the flow.

In terms of how to do it, I unfreeze some mysis in a cup of tank water, swish it to break up the cube about 1/2 hour later, and suck it up into a turkey baster and push out mysis nearly 1 by 1 very, very gently. Too hard and they'll retract their tentacles.

Also, you gotta go nearly every day and blow sand off of them if any is on top of them...they don't remove it too well themselves, despite being a sand-dwelling coral in the wild. It makes my tank fun to maintain, since I have a Rainford Goby (sifts sand for 'pods) and a Blue Spot Jawfish (burrows constantly) in there lol.

 

Okay, thanks a lot!! My brain definitely looks happy - he's very poofy. I just got him on Friday, so I haven't been too worried about feeding him yet. But I want to start.

Maybe I just missed the tentacles, since they are so small. But it could also be the flow. Even though he seems happy where he is, maybe the flow is too much for him to bring out his tentacles?

I will look again tonight - with eagle eyes!