GSP and Corals

[cobra1713]

ok well my GSP is almost to marine now and i went onto reef centeral looking for LR and got a whole bunch of offers for coral frags and stuff and its making me want to try corals in that tank but i know nothing about corals in general and if ZGSP destroy corals or not. and also i would need lighting for the corals. so if you guys could tell me if you think my GSP would be ok with some of the cheaper corals that dont need much light and then point me towards a cheap lighting system that would work for a 29 gallong tank. thanks

[cobra1713]

anybody have some ideas?

[julianchan]

I was chatting with nick on the Live Chat about that a few days ago...I had some questions about it too.... Apparently, GSP's are notorious nippers of coral.....but might do ok with yucky tasting ones, like mushrooms. I am curious to see what input everyone else has, as I would like to have a nice looking home for my little guys.

[lferg]

Mine has NEVER even noticed any corals. I would consider mine completely reef safe.

[cobra1713]

wow both of those respones are good news for me, i am ok with just having mushrooms and even more ok with having a gsp that is reef safe, i just got an offer on a power compact 2X65 watt fixture for around 50$ so im gonna look into that. now its just a matter of rasing the salinity and getting enough live rock in the tank.

[julianchan]

Superb! Please, update us on what you find out with your little guys in there. I would love to hear and see what happens!

[Nick]

Mine, I believe, eventually killed even my mushrooms. I never caught them nipping, but can't imagine what else happened to them. Now this strange cool red seaweed is growing though, it's the first cool growth that haven't eaten on sight.

[cobra1713]

well i am just about heading out to go pick up my lighting, i am going with the PC 130 watts, and the guy is gonna give me a mushroom frag just to try, my salinity isnt quite high enough but i figure why turn down a free frag, i figure the puffer will prob eat it anyway, if the salinity doesnt hurt it. (its at 1.021) and im also gonna go pick up 5-10 lbs of LR rubble from my LFS it has been in there tank for 8-10 weeks so im hoping it is cured but i think i might just cure it myself for a little while, wat do you think?

any suggestions of corals to try with the puffer?

[cobra1713]

ok well i got the light and a couple coral frags, a green mushroom thats tiny and some (tell me if this is right) "caps"? or somthin like that there red and flat corals, the guy just gave me two of the red frags and one green mushroom frag that was on a tiny piece of LR.

when i put them in the tank the puffer whent straight over to them and started to nip at them but then didnt seem interested at all, so far so good. i think he was waiting for bloodworms cus i skipped his feeding last night. (i skip two per week right now)

i am gonna buy some more live rock this week and keep looking for corals, also gonna try a turbo snail and maybe a hermit crab once i get more live rock. so ill keep you al informed on how it goes.

[cobra1713]

oh and ill also post the pics of the lighting and tank when i get them uploaded, its hard to upload the pics without my comp so it takes a little while longer using my old computer

[Pufferpunk]

He'll eat the crab for sure.

[cobra1713]

even if its a larger one? is there any cleaning crew that might work? my puffer doesnt seem that aggresive towards snails, he doesnt even eat the ones i offer him.

[Pufferpunk]

I had a huge, hairy, red hermit & eventually they got him.

[cobra1713]

hmm think theres a chance that if i get a larger hermit now (since my puffer is about 2.5-3") that if they grow together he wont think its food or is that just another myth, and the puffer with get more aggresive with age and kill it when he gets large enough to attack the hermit?

but you think a turbo snail might make it? ifigure a large turbo should stand up to a 3" gsp beak for a while, plus their only like 2$ so if nothing else its just expensive food to try it the first time. (way cheaper than my corals might end up as food lol)

[Pufferpunk]

You're dealing with a lot of unknown variables here--it's totally up to your puffer. I got rid of my 3 for this exact reason, as I started to fall in love with corals.