Swiftia: speed of growth and reproduction?

[dendro982RC]

If you have swiftia, has it a new growth?
How fast it grows? What, in your opinion, makes the growth possible in your tank, when it is absent in another?
Does swiftia reproduce in your tank?

Any noticeable differences for S. exerta and S. kofoidi (or whatever else is available for aquarists) - growth, reproduction, care, requirements?

Picture of progress, timing and link to the tank setup and maintenance routines would be greatly appreciated.

Ah, and if you experienced its rapid tissue necrosis (fungus or not), post, please, how did you deal with it, what was outcome?
Any other diseases or problems?
Thanks.

[dendro982RC]

:D And I was told: What? Do not grow? Swiftia is like a weed... :D

[dendro982RC]

Sorry for being persistent, but as I understand, this is one of the most common and hardy non-photosynthetic corals.

Any help from those, who made it grow the new branches?

[KeithM]

I have a swiftia but it isn't doing very well! It went through a few tank problems and suffered quite badly. I have one branch left which I fragged to save it and it 'seems' to be recovering but growth is definitely not as fast as menellas. My swiftia also got stung very badly when I had it together with SPS corals. Where mucus got stuck on the branches it will strip away the flesh!

All my fingers are crossed that it will recover!

[Stottlemire]

Hi Dendro,

I have had a swiftia now for over a year, and even have video of it spawning in my tank recently. they grow very well for me.

Chuck

[dendro982RC]

Sorry, Chuck, but can you post pictures before and after, and the time interval - how fast the growth occured?

Did you had larvae settlement and new colonies growing?

Just curious - unfortunately, I can't repeat your setup in my settings.
And thank you for making your experience available for reefkeeping community - excellent article!

[tontikki]

extremely hardy and happy coral imo! since its in the tank it is fully open 100% of the time, only seen it close polyps once when my cleaner shrimp (which i hate) jumped on it.

this is the pic taken 13th Sept when i brought the coral from lfs:

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q4/swiftia-sm.jpg

as you can see it was in a pretty bad shape, bleak colour, tissue damage and tissue loss on the base and up the stem:

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q4/swift-dam2.JPGhttp://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q4/swift-dam1.JPG
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q4/swift-dam3.jpg

however, the recovery was very quick. the damaged patches healed almost overnight, and thereafter the coral was re-growing the lost tissue with the speed of 2-3mm a day! this is the coral as of now 11th Oct:

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q4/swiftia2-sm.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q4/swiftia2-stem.jpg

its in the area of medium flow, the polyps are very big (larger than diodogorgia!), takes various food: frozen rotifers, cyclopeeze, red plankton, shaved mysis, krill, mussel, dry crushed flake, coral frenzy and golden pearls.

:)

[dendro982RC]

Thank you so much, tontikki! Especially for photos before and after. Even if it didn't happen in my settings yet, at least I'll know, that this is possible.

I likely already asked you, but will you be so kind and maybe add information to your thread about tank, easily findable through signature:
1, Flow (powerheads, closed loop, where located, tank volume per hour, what part goes through filtration, how you are preventing detritus and food from setting on and under the rock).
2. Location corals in relation to flow (with verbal description, is it reflected from the glass, diffused, laminar, wavemaker - then interval, are polyps bent by flow, acceptable minimum and maximum for this coral, in your opinion).
3. Filtration (which skimmer, mechanical filtration, chemical, any probiotics, ozone, UV).
4. Feeding (what, how frequently, is it automated, how, total amount per day, any phytoplankton).
5. Temperature, salinity, alkalinity.
6. Is it natural sea water or what salt mix.
It will be highly appreciated.

Mine (no particular branch growth or larvae settlement):
1. Necrosis healed (after fragging and disinfection):
http://thumb1.webshots.net/t/63/163/5/13/9/2185513090081040121Tukgnk_th.jpg (http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2185513090081040121Tukgnk) http://thumb1.webshots.net/t/62/462/8/65/83/2123865830081040121qAQMts_th.jpg (http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2123865830081040121qAQMts) http://thumb1.webshots.net/t/58/458/1/70/94/2589170940081040121GPXtDD_th.jpg (http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2589170940081040121GPXtDD) http://thumb1.webshots.net/t/58/458/0/34/98/2368034980081040121RcRVYb_th.jpg (http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2368034980081040121RcRVYb)
2. In a good conditions it regularly grew and dropped babies at the base:
http://thumb1.webshots.net/t/53/153/1/89/22/2004189220081040121wMxHVx_th.jpg (http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2004189220081040121wMxHVx) http://thumb1.webshots.net/t/38/39/7/29/91/2382729910081040121hGDnFl_th.jpg (http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2382729910081040121hGDnFl)
Tried (http://www.defineyourreef.frihost.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=48) to attach them, no success. Unattached, they were lost in the tank and disappeared (checked, behind and under the rock).

[tontikki]

hi dendro, my setup is very simple so far 25g no sump or skimmer (i'm currently thinking of getting a new tank which will have a sump). i have plenty of macro algae though plus very frequent water changes. reef crystals salt, temp 27-28C

flow is closed loop plus a powerhead directed at the glass so swiftia recieves medium indirect laminar flow plus some low indirect chaotic flow from the closed loop. as you can see from the pictures polyps are not bent too much with the flow, i figured since neither swiftia nor diodogorgia have this characteristic 'flat' shape (such as menella for example) the flow for them could be more chaotic, this way more polyps get to have the food.

filtration is again water changes, uv and external with zeolites, carbon, phosphate remover, polyfilter and filter wool. most of this exchanged weekly. i dose a drop of bacteria with each water change plus some carbon source every other day.

feeding is manual so far, a bit of live phyto each morning primarily for my feather duster,otherwise corals are fed 3-4 times in the morning and 5-6 times in the evening. also my partner occasionally works from home, so those days corals are fed the whole day, every 1-2 hours. hard to say how much food totally, i guess about a cube of frozen rotifers a day, a pinch of coral frenzy, a pinch of crushed flake, half-pinch of golden pearls (still cant figure out whether the corals like it or not), 4 or 5 'dips' with frozen cyclopeeze, 2 pinches of shaved frozen food (mysis, krill, mussel, red plankton), that's about it i guess:)

had no babies yet, pity they don't attach! have you tried making some sort of baby pen and dropping them there? would be great to grow out some little swiftias:)

[dendro982RC]

Thanks for the info! Can I ask a little more:

1. For how long tank is working with this kind of feeding?
2. Weekly (or between water changes) rise of nitrates and phosphates, drop of alkalinity.
3. If you will have time, draw the diagram of flow (indicate l/hr, please): tank, sources, direction and force of flow, and where swiftia is located.
4. Salinity.
It would be very helpful for me.

My tank has lower light and lower temperature, around 25C, except the hottest summer months.
I should consider UV and zeolites too, but later, not now.

pity they don't attach! have you tried making some sort of baby pen and dropping them there?
Tried, but my cleanup crew (medium hermits and turbo snails) always dislodged them, together with other corals.
Now I'm modifying system again, and swiftias are not reproducing now.

[tontikki]

the tanks is in operation since June this year, so not that long. it is still maturing though, new critters keeps appearing from the live rock, and i have some nice natural macro algae growth and plently of natural sponges (some of them nice red colour!) during this time i've never had any micro algae outbreak, small patch might appear here and there but then my conches take care of it immediately. so far the only 'development' about the tank that i don't really like is the thick growth of coralline algae on rocks - so an urchin is on the shopping list:)

salinity is 35ppt. i test nitrates before each water change, the reading varies 10-25. alkalinity is more or less stable at 8dkh which i think is also due to regular water changes.

i'll try to draw the flow around the coral later, but there is nothing really special as i mentioned it is not really strong, just waving the branches and polyps nicely and brings the food to the coral.

[dendro982RC]

Thanks!
My tanks' salinity is the same, only salt less perfect - usually Instant Ocean and Red Sea, time from time - all other brands.

If you are using Windows on PC, then even Paint is good for the task of drawing flow. Free drawing pen tool allows get this kind of diagram (not a swiftia tank):
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g78/dendro982/Some%20of%20the%20tanks/20g%20long/Sp2.gif http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g78/dendro982/Some%20of%20the%20tanks/20g%20long/Sp1.gif

Moving detritus to the filtration is a grave problem, especially without wavemaker. Here (http://www.e-coralia.net/panel/showthread.php?p=74750&posted=1#post74750) is a diagram of complicated way, how it could be achieved with powerheads on timers (and usually used Maxi-Jets are big for a small tank).

If this is not a problem for your tank, I would like to learn why. OK?
If you wish, this could be placed in the thread Primary means of filtration? (http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/showthread.php?t=234693)

[tontikki]

i'll try and draw later, regarding moving detritus to the filtration i'd think it is a problem generally; however its not a problem for our tank currently because each morning and each evening before we start feeding corals we take a turkey baster and blast all the rocks (it helps that the tank is quite small:))

i started doing this because i thought this would 'wake up' the corals as there is a lot of food that gets settled on the rocks. 10-15 min after blasting we start adding the food. so it generally works quite ok, plus helps to move detritus to filtration.

of course this solution is not ideal because its not automated, and so may not be convenient, but for now at least it works:thumbsup:

[dendro982RC]

Looking for updates: any new branches?