Tubastraea propagation

[Gordonious]

Here is a different question for ya. Has anyone tried to propagate Sun corals(Tubastraea)? I really would like to get some more spread around my tank. I have one fairly large colony. There is a bit of bare rock left with a little cluster of three polps or so separated from the rest. I am going to try to chip off the rock under them and attach that rock to another, but I was curious if there was other ways. The main colony is tightly packed together and I don’t know how much stress I will put I under breaking this rock up more. I probably won’t do anything to my main colony accept for placing rocks right next to it in hopes it spreads, but was just curious what my other options are for the future.

Thanks in advance for any info,
Jon

 

[redrooster]

Mine propagated via spores all over my tank. I had hundreds of them. On the power heads everywhere. I sold the mother colony as I was going broke feeding it. I was mainly feeding it cyclopeze. It costs me $12 a "stick" and I was going through a little more than a stick a month. So although it was spreading well it wasn't very cost effective and it was also labor intensive. Just one more thing I had to feed everyday. I sold the mother colony about 3months ago, and when I quit feeding regularly the others slowly died off. I still have a few that I am trying to nurse along.

So basically if you feed it well you should have more of them than you know what to do with. Good luck.

 

[Gordonious]

Thanks redrooster, appreciate it.

 

[Anthony Calfo]

the key to success is heavy feeding to induce them to planulate (asexually). Its quite easy when they are target fed daily. On the other hand, without near daily feeding... they struggle over time. Hence the need for specialized biotope tanks or keeping in refugia to relieve the burden of maintenance on trying to feed these corals in a garden reef tank (at risk of pollution).