Easy movement coral?
 

I'm a ways away from this yet, but I was looking for suggestions on some easy to care for (beginner) coral that could provide a little movement. I want kinda wanted to stay away from anything that could be a "weed". I just wasn't sure if "easy to care for" and "not a weed" existed in the same animal.

46bow
LED lights: 57 LEDs • 51x 10000K cool white • 6x 460nm Actinic Blue • Lumen :3420

Hammers, frogspawn, somewhat easy to keep and can have great colour and movement.
Unfortunately easy care and weed mostly go,hand in hand...
Torches OK, but they pack a sting, so leave lots of room.

Green Finger Leather or Tree Coral, won't become a nuisance.

Photosynthetic Gorgonians

Thanks guys for the suggestions. Hammers and Frogspawn are awesome but the price kinda scares me. I don't know if I'm experienced enough to keep them alive yet...and my wife divorce me if I killed something that expensive.

I like the green fingered leather, but can my LED's support that?

Do you have a local fish store? Frags of Euphyllia (frogspawn, branching hammer, etc) should be 10 bucks per head or less.

Toadstool leathers are another one to look into.

LEDs can grow anything, depending on the fixture.

Also depends on where you live. Traveling around my state in search of LFS's, I've found typical euphyllia going for anywhere between 5$ to 80$ a head.

+1 euphyllia, remember to go for branching type rather than walling type!

At most of the LFSs around here (costal VA) they start around $40 and wind up north of $100. The only frags for $10 are tiny mushrooms and zoas.

However, I will say I didn't look closely at euphyllia because I thought they were kind of tough to keep. There may be some deals out there.

Whoa. Had no idea frags of that stuff would be expensive anywhere.

There has to be some Hampton Roads reefers out there willing to sell you some frags.

How far of a drive is it for you to get to the Raleigh, NC area? There's a place called "Reef Keepers" in Clayton, NC that will help you every step of the way, and have decent prices. I bought a purple torch from them with 6 heads on it, bigger than a football for like $80.

Raleigh is a bit more than 3 hrs away (with ideal traffic...which hahaha). There are about 3 LFSs near by with different prices. All are overpriced on some things, and better on others; it's kinda hit or miss. The cheapest at all of them are still $10 tiny mushrooms and zoas.

Hammers, Gonioporas, Frogspawn, Torch, Star Polyps, Green Star Polyps, Daisy Polyps, Palythoa, Finger Leather, Moon, Pineapple, Star (favia), Jasmine and Ridge (Nemenzophyllia).

These are my opinions! :) Good luck!

Anything worth keeping is pricey, colour demands price, rarity demands price, cheap things are usually boring and grow like weeds....best bang for your buck, I would go with zoos, but resist the drab looking ones, the good ones you will know! Cause you will say WOW!

Uncle99 check at your current post #! :O

It's almost 2 hours for me to get there, and I still make the drive. In fact I'm going this weekend. I don't want mushrooms ever again, I have some purple ones in my tank now that just keep spreading. They gotta go.

Which mushroom type you're talking about?

I don't even know where they came from, I assume they hitchhiked in on a frag somewhere...

They look just like this:

Attachment 388027


One day there was just one there.

A few months later there were 6.

They're pretty cool!

Discosoma (Actinodiscus)

Yeah, they'd be a perfect pad for a Yellow Clown Goby, but I'm pretty sure my Starry Blenny would chase him off. My plan is to find a way to get a bunch off the big rock they're on, and on to a small rock to give to someone local.

I'm not complaining about paying for quality. My concern is paying that much for something I'm not sure I can keep alive (yet). I have 1 mushroom (that still refuses to attach to anything) and one small frag of zoas. I'm just looking for something that's easy to care for that can provide a bit of movement.

I'll keep my eyes open for finger leather, hammer, or frogspawn that's not too $$$.

Green (or blue) Star Polyps (aka GSP) Pulsing Xenia or Waving Anthelia are easy-care corals too... but they will spread pretty quick.

UPDATE: I found a single head of hammer at a newer LFS for $10. I dipped it and set it in. So far so good, though I am a bit concerned about cal, never tested for it (never needed to).