Ricordea care and tribulations.....Please add your own as well.

I figure since I will start a Ricordea Florida care thread I will also start a Yuma care thread as well, but for now we will start a discussion on Florida Ricordea. To me one of the most coveted species of corallimorpharians there is, let's say the queen of the mushroom kingdom.


From personal experience I think lighting, alk, Ca, flow are the most important factors in keeping Florida Ricordea in the aquarium. Before I didn't have MH or VHO even T-5s I only had NO bulb and they would diminish within 3 months.

Since I have upgraded all of my equipment and switched salts to Red Sea Pro I have not had a single issue with Florida Ricordea, Yumas maybe but not Florida(knock on wood). I have mine right now in what would be med/high flow that is pulsing by a MP20. They seem to really like the flow and being blasted with the lighting which they are on the bottom and up the valley but under direct lighting from a 250w 14k Hamilton SE and 2x24w T-5s UVI Super actinic Rs. The coloration of these polyp have only intensified since placement in my tank. I have gotten about 35 polyps in the last 4 months.

I have noticed under MH lighting they can morph a bit in color and intensity. I have read but cannot verify in the captive system that water temp also plays a role in color in the wild. During summer months I have ready that as the water gets warmer they will morph from orange to green etc. in the shallows. I have had some in the past morph considerably one set of polyps I had were a blue grey color that after about a month or so they were Koolaid purple with green mouths....Prized for sure but died in a horrific incident that took about 40 of the 100+ I had at the time and a second time that took another half of my collection.....

Here is something to look out for although it only happened twice for about a month but it decimated my collection. In all the reading of Ricordea Florida I had never heard or read of a predator that was specific to ricordea. I unfortunately found out the hard way. I did a mass order with a LFS friend of mine of 400 polyps from a wholesaler and aquaculture operation. I figured I could get 10 polyps at wholesale and get them some great rics to boot...So they got the rics I went down and picked mine out. Got them back acclimated and settled about a month later I noticed that some of my rics which I had for a long time started to show signs of issues. The issue?

The polyps would pull back from the skirt to the mouth while it seemed like they were losing pigment as well. Not sure what to do I just let them go and watched over a few days to a week. Towards the end of that week I noticed that I had more starting to do this, I didn't have an bobbit worms and very few bristle worms. So I knew they were not the issue..... I decided to do a dip of some sort so I got home from work lights just had turned on so I grabbed a small rock that had 2 super bright orange ricordea I noticed now they had a clear slime around the base and the rubble they were attached to. Out of this slime I noticed small bright orange little balls. So I started to pull them out and the slime layer kinda broke open and these little orange balls swam to the glass and slowly down to the sand....What the hell I thought? I dropped them into the FW/Iodine dip. For about 5 mins with a swish and a turkey baster I cleaned them off. While they were in the dip I see in the spot where they were a little blob of slime and inside this slime was a bunch of little orange balls moving around. So I knew this was something that was feeding on my prized corals.... After dipping every ric that was on the sand with small rubble I placed them back into the tank but on the rock work this time. I noticed that rics on the sand that were are on large rocks were not effected same with ones in the rock work or Yumas.

After a couple of dips over the next 2 weeks I lost about 40 rics of the 100+ I had so I thought every thing was fine and it showed up again after about 2 weeks and lost about another 20 or so. Come to find out the place we got the rics from had a protozoa infestation that feeds on Ricordea Florida. I had never heard of it or seen it but I can tell you right now it moves quick and infects on a mass scale.
I also went to other forums and told of my story and was told I was full of this and that....Till 2 other guys said they were experiencing the same thing. Then a couple of collectors chimed in and said yes there is such a thing and they make quick work of ricordea and also ingest the pigment that is why they were bright orange.....Needless to say FW/Iodine dips did the trick and some of them are still with me today....This protozoa does not infect Ricordea Yuma.... I also think that the quality of Red Sea Pro and it's parameters have also helped keep the alk and Ca stabile.

All those who keep Florida ricordea please share your experiences wither it be positive or negative and the conditions that you have kept them in and if it is successful or not....

Ricordea Florida(my tank conditions)
Lighting 250 w MH 14k SE - 2x 24w T-5 actinc
High direct lighting.....
Flow med/high
Placement bottom to about 8'' from the top
Alk 8
Ca 400
Nitraits 5-10
I will also start a Yuma care thread later... I got some info on those to share as well.

I have noticed that when alk gets low they seem to be more compact and shriveled....They like typical parameters that we reefers keep in check. But I from my personal observation they really do like higher flow and high light.

Great post Azurel. Ive never kept ric's but Barb is wanting some now so we will be looking back on this when we are ready

'Ya got that right hon! I've always had a thing for them...but wanted clams more...now that I have no clams and we're gonna turn our 180g into an LPS/softie tank...hmmmmmmm...this is very good info to have indeed!

Very good post Azurel, keep them coming.

I have about 4000 under propagation right now. I don't know if this makes me an expert on the subject but I have had my fair share of loss in my day. I'll share some of what I know now with more to follow.

Death: My first loss was when I ordered 1000 form a dive and got stuck with no delivery, that's another story though.
My second experience was in the greenhouses. We had about 2000 or so growing and noticed these black bugs were eating them all up( I have the pictures and name will get them on later). We found that raising the salinity to 1.027 would eliminate this. There is another reason for loss I think this is why most people with nice clean tanks have trouble keeping them alive. Ricordea florida have real issues with clean water, ricordea florida actually prefer dirty water with nitrate at about 10 with regular feedings of at least once a week. So if you have a sps tank and running super clean water they will be harder to care for.

Propagation: This is actually easy to do. We take scissors and cut them in half once a second mouth has developed. the scissors will last about 2 weeks so i get dollar store ones. We like to keep up on growing them as opposed to ordering them in then shipping them out. I think about every 60 days I get another polyp. We let some grow and grow to see how big they will get. I have several with 7 and 8 mouths I'll take some pictures later.

Lighting and temp: 75 to 77 simple as that. Higher temps will work but we notice trhe colors are better around that temp. I think the best lighting is intense T5 as opposed to MH seems to do better this way. When they get under the pipes and are shaded I notice them sprouting up towards the light reaching for it in a way.

General care: I think after feeding and lighting and water quality and temp you need to have other animals in the tank caring for them (Halichoeres Melanurus) Melanurus wrasse and blue leg hermits as well as conch snails. They don't do well in sand they cat attach bigger gravel is better with rock being the best choice


I will go in more depth in another post I think I have the flu so I'm going to go to bed early

Good stuff Ammon.....Get better!

Good info indeed...we're eager for some more too when you're feeling better!

Not sure about T-5 being better since I don't have a T-5 set-up but I have ha great luck with MH. I do like T-5 though and the color combinations you can get with all the different bulbs. I still like the ripple effect of Halides which I think is a little more natural in the end then Fluorescent lighting.....But it is all a matter of opinion....


Ammon the bugs you saw sound just like the thing had an issue with till they incorporated the pigment. It almost reminds me of Red bugs for SPS but a little more volatile.

One of my favorite way to frag is gravity propagation. It is where you have a polyp attached to two pieces of rubble and you let one piece hang off and pull on the polyp over time it will stretch till the point that it gets thin and snaps or you can cut it. The cool thing about this way is due to the stretching the mother polyp will end up being about the same size as it was when it started and the new polyp will be bigger as well it does take longer or it to all to happen.....They seem to heal alot faster as well, not that ricordea don' heal fast anyway the last one I fragged all the pieces were fully healed in about 4-5 days.....

Great stuff guys, I am learning a lot from this thread. I am not going to lie, lol being a clam nut I really don't know much about Ric's.

Ammon I can't wait to see the pic's.

Get well soon.

I like ricorde but here in my country i havent seen any speciment. And the they 2 marine shop we have they dont bring them because their too expensive and people dont buy them.

that's too bad...they really are beautiful and very easy to maintain...what are the most popular/easy to get corals at your LFS?

Great threads guys!!! There pretty neat. I only have one but it's doing well.

most popular... leather coral, anemonies althought i see people managing to kill leather corals and anemonies they just like to buy and they dont care about them just throw them in to the aquarium( bad people)Ricorde yuma in my country one polip sells for around $80. clams also are expensive 7cm for $120 , acropora $120 , granulose acropora for $190.That purple tank i bought it as show size and i pay for him $320. i want to change frags with someone in my country but i thing iam alone . you can count them on your fingers those who have marine aquarium in my country. Over estimated prices turns people to seek for other hooby.

Originally Posted by kyriakos

most popular... leather coral, anemonies althought i see people managing to kill leather corals and anemonies they just like to buy and they dont care about them just throw them in to the aquarium( bad people)Ricorde yuma in my country one polip sells for around $80. clams also are expensive 7cm for $120 , acropora $120 , granulose acropora for $190.That purple tank i bought it as show size and i pay for him $320. i want to change frags with someone in my country but i thing iam alone . you can count them on your fingers those who have marine aquarium in my country. Over estimated prices turns people to seek for other hooby.

Wow...I can't believe you have so few people interested in this hobby over there...if you did you'd have more varieties and much lower prices...don't you have the waters to have great access to all these beauties?

yes we have a lot of water , Mediterranean Sea surrounds Cyprus . cyprus is an island but no any reef around Nothing colorfoul.

hey kyriakos we can swim and meet in the meddle on the Mediterranean to exchange frags how this sound ?

Originally Posted by kyriakos

yes we have a lot of water , Mediterranean Sea surrounds Cyprus . cyprus is an island but no any reef around Nothing colorfoul.

Originally Posted by marvik

hey kyriakos we can swim and meet in the meddle on the Mediterranean to exchange frags how this sound ?

LOL

Thats sound niceit may take as a few years to meet but we have to see it positive , acropora frags will turn into trees :0

barb that's why in the Mediterranean this hobby all expansive here all imported from ells where and make it hell of a hobby but the love of it make you do the imaginable here 1kg live rock that is 2.2 something lb is 30euro's imagine you well need 100lb and in italy is more expansive then here

Originally Posted by Barbara

Wow...I can't believe you have so few people interested in this hobby over there...if you did you'd have more varieties and much lower prices...don't you have the waters to have great access to all these beauties?