Blastos and Chalice

[BlakDuc]

Some stuff I read says to put them in low light, some stuff I read says to blast them with light. I don't really want to feed them, but I guess I will if I have to. They seem to not really open up all the way and not really growing. Please help.

[bpd964]

Depends on what you have.. Some love high light and others will actually melt if you give too much light. Generally, lower light works for either. The best thing is to find the requirements for each and go from there.. Phyto works for feeding but IME, I never feed. When I clean the glass of film algae, I believe that's good enough..

[BlakDuc]

I am not sure what the deal is with them. I think it might be a nutrient issue. My Nitrates are around 2. Some of the other lps in my tank looks so so(frogspawn, green trumpets) but my 2 frags of blasto merletti and my chalice frag just look like crap. I will try shooting some Rod's Food at them tomorrow. I do have a lot of light over the tank though (2x175 and 2x39 in a 40 breeder) and I have moved all of them from low on the rockwork to cave areas so they aren't getting as much light.

[Jon in SW Ohio]

Check your alkalinity and salinity too, blastos are always the first to tell you something isn't right with your params.

I keep blastos practically in the dark, and chalices in high light. I feed both frozen mysis shrimp once a week or so.

[Echidna09]

You may have to acclimate them to the light you want. Once they get in the environment they like, they might even start showing off some sweet colors.

[BlakDuc]

The chalice was doing great under PC in my old tank, even growing. Now under the halides, it seems shriveled up almost. They have been in here almost a month now and dont seem to be improving. I shot some Rod's Food at them this morning. I will see if that helps any.

[Serioussnaps]

Blastos need to be fed IMHO or you will start to see tissue recession. Chalices less so, but it is good to feed them every couple of weeks or so at night.

[Justin74]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11139893#post11139893 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jon in SW Ohio
Check your alkalinity and salinity too, blastos are always the first to tell you something isn't right with your params.


In my experience this is not true :( I recently had to move a 4+ year established system into a new tank, with new new sand and plumbing. For the first month and half my alkalinity was like a rollercoaster ride bobbing between 7 and 10 dkh and the pH rose and fell even harder than that from 7.9-8.6 . Durring this time my acro colonies were hit the hardest, half suffered alkalinity/pH burns on the tips some a good inch down, even corals that I thought were short of bullet proof were almost lost, and some were lost.

All the while, my blastos wellsi stayed plump, fully expanded and colorfull like they were oblivious to any indifferences at all.

Blastomussa merletti on the other hand are found and collected in higher light areas, and protected areas of turbid waters, sometimes not even really protected. Meaning there requirements are nothing like their cousin the wellsi.
Chalice are a crapshoot. First off there's at least 5 different specie I can name off the top of my head that are considered chalice, let alone the ones that arent coming to me right now that are too considered to be chalice. This is important as they arent all found and collected in the same place, thus have different light and flow requirements and tolerances. Most chalice I have seen doing well are found in the middle to bottom of the tank of your average high intensity lit reef. Although low in placement, most are in direct light. Merletti, pretty much the same thing but again, are more tolerant to moderate flow and benefit from direct lighting unlike there cousin the wellsi.

Mysid, rotifers (rotifeast, my favorite), and cyclopeeze are all excellent choices for feeding almost all LPS, and should be considered once a week, provided water quality is not a trade off.


-Justin