Galaxia Coral

[meanmachine]

i just placed a Galaxia Coral in my tank..any ideas pointers on keeping it healthy?

I have an AquaLight double linear for lighting and i placed the coral up top.

[Blown 346]

Good waterflow, keep plenty of room between it and other corals since the Galaxia can sting corals to close to it. Supplemental feedings of Phyto plankton once or twice a week.

[meanmachine]

Do you have to target feed the Galaxia?

[Blown 346]

No you dont have to but it wont hurt if you do.

[Subrafta]

They're pretty tough as far as corals go. My Galaxia is a live rock survivor and has expanded from a few polyps to an oversized softball in the past two years. It spent the first 6 months under 15W normal output floursecent (even grew a bit), and has really taken off under 250W MH +48W atinics.

They do sting and agressively send out sweeper tenticles so the advice to keep it away from other corals is good -- make sure it has 6 inches or more. Mine has been fighting green star polyps for several months and shows no signs of giving up or backing down.

I don't notice any difference in growth rate between when I fed DT's phyto and today -- it's been over a year since I fed DT's.

John

[meanmachine]

As far as lighting i have an Aqualight - Double Linear Strip with 10,000K and True Actinic 03 Blue Compact Fluorescent Lamps. I leave them on for a total of eight hours a day with the blue lights coming on an hour before and going off an hour after the daylight.

Is this sufficient lighting?

[meanmachine]

I have my Galaxia on the top of my rock base which sits about midway in the tank. Does this coral thrive in light or prefers a more shady spot?

[BillnJennh]

I'll tell you what I've done with a small galaxy frag that I have. I took frozen raw shrimp and grated some of the meat off of it while it was still frozen. I mixed the shrimp shavings with a bit of tank water, turn the pumps off, and let a bit drift down onto the coral (don't actually blow it at it, it'll pull in). I've saw it putting on new growth by leaps and bounds. Now if I can just get it to encrust over onto another rock.

[Tpareefer]

I owned one for years and never directly feed my galaxia. It grew from a golf ball into a softball within a year. I say good Calcium and Alk levels go farther for growth than anything else.

Mine got so big that I had to keep moving it around my 55 gal to prevent it from severely stinging every thing else. I routinely saw 8-12 inch sweepers. Also, IMO, lower flow is better to prevent the galaxia from "sweeping the tank" and seem to look the best in lower flow.

I eventually had to trade in the galaxia for a good amount of store credit. Galaxia will win and was winning most of the coral wars within my 55 gallon. From moving it around so much, I now have discovered 2 new small patches of galaxia offspring that is attached to my base rock and growing quite fast. Crazy and very aggressive coral!:smokin:

[mg426]

they are very cool. just be carefull they can and will sting anything close by. the sweepers can get well over 6 inches.