how do you anchor coral ?

Question

I just bought a leather coral (kind of has a potato type skin with fingery things on it) and it's attached to two small rocks. Is there a way to finesse it to anchoring to one of my live rocks instead ?

Answer 1

Copper head has the best advice. Marine Epoxy is best, however most soft corals will eventually attach themselves. This isn't always an option if you are running powerful power heads or a wave maker. Rubberbands and pinning corals, I would shy away from. Sometimes the rubberbans cut into your corals doing more damage than good. Pins also work their way free and not knowing how to pin a coral can also do more damage.

If you really want them in a specific place, glue them. Again in a few days they will attach themselves. Remember glueing also suffocates any live growth directly beneath it.

Answer 2

With leathers and other soft corals, you can just place them against a rock and they will attach to it in a few days....you can glue them, pin them down...even use rubber bands...or just set it next to it. You most likely won't be able to get the small rocks off of it short of cutting them off....but after time it will create a solid base against other rock on its own. But you can also buy coral glue at most fish stores, it obviously works underwater and is completely safe.

I usually just kinda stick the small rocks they are on into a crack on a larger rock. You might be surprised at how fast they can attach themselves. In the wild they might be detached and float around...so naturally they grab onto anything as quickly as possible.

Answer 3

I use a couple of methods:
1.) Gel-Super glue... Glue one of the small rocks to where you want the coral.

2.) Rubberband... You can actually strap a rubberband around the base of the soft coral to the larger rock. After a few days, you can cut the rubberband off when it has attached to the larger rock.

Answer 4

each and every coral has a primary fee of water flow, lights and food. Do something diverse and that they do poorly. you will ought to study that particular coral and locate out those particular standards

Answer 5

I usually use a saltwater epoxy if it doesn't anchor just by having a good crevice between rocks I can slip it into (this is what I use http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=AS4711).

Answer 6

no you cant, you will damage it. Those things tend to grow to huge lenghts and should not be kept in a small aquarium. The fish store which i go to has one about 2 feet long that just floats on top of the tank. i think its called a cucumber or something like that