Re: Pdf Acan
Austin Vermont
I know I want to have some ACAN in my tank eventually and not the biggest fan of Zoas. Is it too early to grab an acan for an 8 week old tank that seems to me to be pretty stable. Got a healthy green algae growing on rocks and back of tank.
Beginner here with them and they are easy. My reef store said to keep them to the side of your light, which I do at the bottom. Mine love the captiv8aquaculture.com The 25 g, 50 g, pouches that are $13.49, $18.49, its called " Integr8 Reef food " made by a Marine Biogeochemist once a week, Hope this helps
Acans are pretty durable, yeah. Find out what kind of acan it is. If it's an acan lord, those aren't very aggressive at all, and can be put close to other corals if the other corals won't sting them. Acan lords are also not actually acans, they were reclassified as micromussas, but people call them acans. If it's an acan echinata, it's very aggressive, has long sweeper tentacles, and should be kept far away from other corals.
So when corals are talking about high flow / low flow corals. They are referring to " when feeding ". I always took it as an always thing as to what the coral will thrive in while being left alone to bask in the reef lighting.
So for my 400 gph flow of indirect water movement in a 10 gallon would bother them? The circulation pump would NOT BE DIRECTED - anywhere near the coral. Just a circulating water flow throughout the tank.
There's probably a spot or two in your tank that an acan would like. If it's not expanding much, it's either in too much flow or too much light, so you can use that to figure out where a frag wants to be.
Lighting,really depends on what lighting they were under before. If leds,which 99.95% of people use,lower par area's are going to be their favorite spots. Somewhere in the low-medium par ranges. Say maybe 80-150 ? If they are rainbows,I have learned under high lighting they will go orange/red.
In the 2nd to last picture,the 2nd Acan from the left the double polyp frag,has actually started to change colors and the outer ring that was grayish white,is actually pink now. The very last pic,wanted shade and lost all its colors basically so is hidden now back under the rocks to see if it returns back to original.
I had a big scan garden ..... colonies of 30 - 40+ heads. It seemed they grew faster with the old skeleton cut of. The skeletons are generally sharp and jaggity. With the flow, I think it would agitate the soft flesh ..... just an assumption on my part. Once I started cutt I'll ng off the dead, mounted them to rock, they quickly grew out and over. I just used a dremel and never had an issue cracking nor damaging the surrounding healthy guys.
yes. i had a acan colony that came to me as one live head surrounded by dead skeleton. i cut off some of the outer ones, but left the dead skeleton near the head. it regrew over them and looks great now.
I will agree with most here about the growth patterns of acans. I have one acan that has went from 4-10 polyps in a couple months. While a few others have yet to grow any additional heads. Nutrition is huge in my opinion when it comes to acans. I like to feed chunky foods or pellets to most acans, if they are smaller go for a powder mixed to a paste.
That being said like MrObscura said unless it's a super awesome rainbow I would opt to find a mini colony. You can easily find some for a reasonable price, and they will more likely start growing more rapidly.
I eventually decided to glue it to a 4.25" disk as in this picture. Wanted to get a closer look at the polyps so I brushed against it to get it to withdraw its tentacles which are usually out 24/7. On 10/4/18.
Mine have suddenly sprouted a bunch of new heads, especially my largest frag. I have been increasing my lighting and just up the glow a lot as well as started feeding benereef, so a combination of those things combined that may of helped.
Same 'ole regimen as always. Just on the sandbed and no spot feeding. Some of the daughter polyps are now large enough to see now versus before when it was just the mother polyp. Approximately 1 month difference between this set and the last pic and 2 months after picking up the single polyp.
I got three one-head frags on black Friday. One of them now has 9 heads, one has 7 (hard to count, they are of diff sizes, and one only has 3. I feed them a couple times a week with Mysis or LRS reef frenzy. If they like your tank and you feed them, I think they actually grow pretty quickly
Ah, yes you know I actually do that too. Mysis shrimp or reef roids 2x a week. I suspect maybe my Salinity fluctuations are to blame. I top off 2-3x/week with RO water. I just bought an ATO though so hopefully that will help.
LIGHT: MODERATE-HIGH (150-200 par) Lighting we find best, although they can probably tolerate as little as 100. It is easy to damage coral with too much lighting so in our opinion when it comes to lighting, less is often more for LPS corals. You can learn more about Lighting and it's overall impact on your reef tank in our article Lighting and your Reef Tank
FOOD: SPOT FEED. Acanthastrea Echinata are moderate eaters with capable tentacles. They will catch and consume most food types including frozen, liquid and even pellets. Like most corals they capture nutrients from the water column and will do best when supplied a healthy amount of food. Our method is high import, high export. You can learn more about Feeding and Filtration in our article Feeding, Filtration and your Reef Tank.
FLOW: MODERATE. We have had good luck giving Echinata varying flow patterns with good success. We have kept one variety of Echinata in our Acropora grow out system which has the most flow in our entire facility. That said it is always INDIRECT flow. Too much flow, especially direct flow, can cause damage to the corals tissue or an inability to capture food. You can read more about Flow and its overall impact on your reef tank in our article Flow and your Reef Tank
DIFFICULTY: MODERATE. Although not considered the fastest growers certain specimens have been seen to do well in captivity when the right combination of Food/Light/Flow and Filtration are achieved. We rate them at moderate difficulty as there is not a ton of variety of aquacultured specimens which tends to mean they do not grow fast or do well enough long term in captivity.
PRICE: MODERATE-HIGH. Like most corals, depending on size and coloration Echinata's can be valuable. Although not the most popular corals in the hobby, their slower growth rate and limited availability of aquaculture tends to keep the price up. Some absolutely striking colors and patterns can be seen in Echinata corals and often time it is slept on by the general hobbyist.
AGGRESSION: AGGRESSIVE. You would not want to place them too closely to anything that you don't want to get stung. As the acan echinata coral grows in health and size so does it's aggressive nature. We recommend at least 4" away from other species, potentially more. You should monitor as it grows.
NATURAL TEMPERATURE: 82 F / 28 C although most corals can adapt and survive in temps as low as 77 degrees and as high as 84 degrees. You can read more about temperature and how it affects your reef tank in our article Temperature and your Reef Tank.
The Acanthastrea echinata, also known as the "starry cup coral," is a species of coral in the Lobophylliidae Family. Once grouped closely with Acan Lordhowensis, it is now considered the only true acan as the former has been reclassified as Micromussa Lordhowensis. Acanthastrea Echinata is also a large polyp stone (LPS) coral. The thick-walled, circular corallites of the Acan can appear joined directly to one another by fused walls (cerioid) or joined by fused compound walls (subplocoid). The vertical plates in the walls (or septa) have large toothy projections. The skeleton is covered with folded, fleshy tissue. Appearing uniform in color or mottled, the Acan can be found in seemingly endless color combinations and patterns. Acans are a truly beautiful addition to any reef.
When introducing an Acan into your reef, location is important regarding lighting and waterflow. Acanthastrea echinata can be kept under a variety of light conditions ranging from low to moderate. Lighting that's too high can damage an Acan. We recommend around 100 PAR. We recommend keeping your Acan in a low to medium flow area of your reef. High flow could cause the polyps to not fully extend or could cause tears in the fleshy tissue. Lower flow also provides more opportunities for your Acan to catch a meal.
Through their symbiotic relationship with a photosynthetic algae, known as zooxanthellae, they receive many of their nutrients. They also filter-feed on the nutrients in the water column. It is a good idea to provide them with additional foods like microplankton or other foods designed for filter-feeding invertebrates. Acans benefit from targeted feeding of meaty foods. To maintain good health, calcium, strontium, and other trace elements should be monitored and added as needed.
Acan echinata are aggressive corals - even with other Acans. They need their own personal space. At night, stinging sweeper tentacles will emerge from the Acan and insure nothing is encroaching on that personal space, so make sure to give this coral room to grow and thrive.
Reef Chasers was founded in 2020 by Reef Enthusiasts looking to bring affordable, sustainable and tank-ready livestock to your home aquarium. We dream of a future where all coral sales come from 100% aqua-cultured sources!
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