coral of the week { blastomussa }

shred5 · Jan 18, 2001

week #8 coral of the week { blastomussa }. This coral is pictured on page 136 of the book Corals a quick reference guide by Julian Sprung. There are two species of this genus that are commonly imported for the aquarium trade B. wellsi and B. merleti.

Every week I will post a new coral and I want you to post everything you know about this particular coral. Everything from common names, how hardy they are, water temp, water flow, lighting, water parameters, fraging, spawning, related corals, scientific names, feeding, best ways to ship, etc. Post your pictures for identification. Please tell us about your system so others can duplicate your success. Also email me for request on which corals you would like to see in this section.

Dave

slojmn · Jan 18, 2001

I love these little guys

. I have a few groups of the B. merleti. It was originally one piece and broke apart into two. I have them in my 40g reef at with terrible lights, crummy NO that are old. They love it. My colonies have doubled over the past year and a half. I had a little broken piece with four heads on it and I put it in my new 120g reef under MH lighting and they shriveled up and died. I tried moving them under a rock but the damage was already done. I was only running the MH for a couple of hours a day at that time, but it was to much for them. When I move one of the colonies to the tank with the MH I will definately place under a shaded area to start with. I have yet to master putting a picture in my post, hopefully soon

, but there is a good picture of one of my colonies on my website under the 40g tank. Check it out

.

bigben · Jan 18, 2001

I love 'em, too! I got my B. merleti back in March, and it has tripled in size under my 2x55 PCs! I feed it Coral Heaven (from IPSF) every other day. Occasionally, it catches a piece of Bangaii feces and devours it before I can get it in the tank to pick it out... Overall, it's one of my favorites!

Ben

Salt Creep · Jan 18, 2001

Hmm, I've tried breaking mine (B. merleti) and I couldn't figure out how. The skeletons seem to be really hard and well connected to each other, though I can see the distinct "tubes" they're all well cemented together. Any suggestions?
When I first saw this coral at the fish store, it was under metal halides and starting to fade rather badly. It's since recovered its color in my tank under fluorescents, so I think it prefers low lighting. I haven't seen it eat, even though food sometimes sticks to its tentacles. It just never seems to engulf the food. Mine gets quite a bit of water turbulence, so maybe the food just gets washed out too quickly.
I'm not sure how aggressive it is, but it's managed to keep my Leptoseris (at least I think it's a lepto!) at bay and kill of the part that it's growing against.
The one thing I wish my Blastomussa did is expose the green center part of its polyps more. The one I have tends to be rather "fluffy" looking.

Ken

bigben · Jan 18, 2001

Hey Ken,

Nice pics. What type of camera did you use?
Thanks,

Ben

NorthCoast · Jan 18, 2001

Click on the thumbnail to see a larger photo...

Click on the thumbnail to see a larger photo...

<A HREF="http://ncoastreef6.homestead.com/files/Oct00Pic17.JPG" TARGET=_blank>

</A>

I have mine under 400w MH and it still seems to be growing and doing well.

It is located near the top of the tank and I target feed once a week with the same frozen food I feed the fish.

Later,
NC

NorthCoast · Jan 18, 2001

slojmn said:
I have yet to master putting a picture in my post, hopefully soon , but there is a good picture of one of my colonies on my website under the 40g tank. Check it out .

Click on the thumbnail to see a larger photo...

<A HREF="http://slojmnsreef.homestead.com/files/pineapple_coral_small.jpg" TARGET=_blank>

</A>

slojmn,

Very nice pic! I hope you don't mind that I posted the link. You can edit this post to see how the link was coded for future reference. Hope to see more pics in your post...

HTH,
NC

[Edited by NorthCoast on 01-18-2001 at 02:13 AM]

Tommy · Jan 18, 2001

Mine prefers a few inches off the bottom.The lighting is four VHO and 1 NO bulb.A friend gave me just 4 polyps and now there must be at least 25.Dose any body know how many types there are?
Tommy

coralsandbar · Jan 18, 2001

I just bought two frags of B. Merlitti from premiumaquatics last weekend and had a friend give me a frag. He told me that they grow quicker if you place them on their sides and allow them to grow up or down. They are naturally found this way in the wild and tend to form huge walls.

I have placed mine on their sides allowing them to grow up and they have inflated quite hugely. Best spot to place them is in a rock crack where it can easily grow up onto your live rock.

HTH,

Rob

Kimanne · Jan 18, 2001

Wow! What beautiful corals! I have never seen these in my LFS. Are they rare? The pink and purple are outstanding!

Clyde · Jan 18, 2001

my little pinky b. merleti

VHO/2x250 (I neeeeed to upgradethe VHO bulbs BAD now)

i m getting cyno growing in some spots, I assume its the blad specturm

oh well another 140.00 into the tank.

big pict check http://clyde.blackcore.com/corals/pinkblast.jpg

Canadian · Jan 18, 2001

Mine has some spots of translucent tissue. I think it's because something is under the polyps and is aggravating the coral. It has grown new polyps but the skeleton has hardly grown in the 8 months that I've had it.

Playfair · Jan 18, 2001

Blastos are pretty much my favorite coral!
I currently have 6 varieties comprising both species, and am always looking for more...

<center>Click on the thumbnail to enlarge my favorites
<a href="http://members.localnet.com/~playfair/rc/blasto_group.jpg">
<img src="http://members.localnet.com/~playfair/rc/blasto_group_tn.jpg"></a>
</center>

SC, To frag the Merleti, just wedge something into the skeleton about where you want it to fracture. If a couple heads get split, they will heal or get overgrown with new ones. Wellsi is a different story...

NC, those are sweet, but I believe they would open much more in partial shade... they really don't like light.

goby · Jan 18, 2001

hey,

its a HUGE (800k) pic, but its worth looking at!

http://www.k2net.cc/users/vigg/images/1600X1200/blastamosa.jpg

g

NorthCoast · Jan 19, 2001

Playfair,

Thanks for the kind words.

I am going to get another frag or two from the same parent colony and I will try a lower lighted location. If the others seem to do better then I will move my original.

Later,
NC

slojmn · Jan 19, 2001

Northcoast, Thanks for posting my picture. I will definately check out how you did it. i've tried a few times and I end up with the square with an 'x' in it. Your coral has a great purple color.
Clyde I love your little pink guy

Wolverine · Jan 19, 2001

Sorry, just like last week, we still don't have the picture of ours.

We have a B. merletti that we picked up from Fish Junction in Columbus, OH. I would say that it looks most like the one second from the right on playfair's posted picture.

It's grown very quickly under little flow, 2X96W PC bulbs plus 1X30W NO actinic bulb. Like all of our corals, it gets the food that the fish don't get. We feed enough that something ends up hitting all the corals.

Northcoast, that one you have is amazing; I've never seen one that color before.

Dave

TAC · Jan 19, 2001

This is a great thread. I searched for other corals of the week, and found none. Could someone give me the hyperlinks for the previous 7?

Thanks,

Terry

Mark · Jan 19, 2001

Click on forum jump below this thread, and scroll down to the archives. There you will see one labeled Coral of the Week series.

Fredfish · Jan 19, 2001

Finally, a coral of the week I can post about.

Nice pics all. I particularly like yours Saltcreep. It makes me think of an endless field of Blastomusa! Mine looks exactly likes Canadian's.

I have found this to be one of the hardiest corals I have kept. It has survived at least 3 bouts of tank abuse very well.

Had it under NO lighting (200W on a 65g about 4" under water) for the first 1.5 years and it never grew at all. Since adding a 250W it has sprouted 10+ new polyps which are growing quite quickly. FYI tank is 12 feet from a south facing picture window so it gets suplemental lighting from there as well.

I also looks more healthy (hard to explain how though) since I shut down my skimmer, perhaps from increased phyto??

This is one of my favourites and I am looking forward to the day when it gets significantly bigger.

Fred

coral of the week { blastomussa }

shred5

slojmn

bigben

Salt Creep

bigben

NorthCoast

NorthCoast

Tommy

New member

coralsandbar

New member

Kimanne

New member

Clyde

Canadian

Playfair

goby

NorthCoast

slojmn

Wolverine

TAC

New member

Mark

Fredfish

New member

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