Briareum sp (Starburst Polyp)

Source: liveaquaria.com

QUICK STATS

• Care Level: Easy
  
• Temperament: Peaceful
  
• Lighting: Moderate to High
  
• Waterflow: Medium to Strong
  
• Placement: Middle to Top
  
• Water Conditions: 72-78° F, dKH 8-12, pH 8.1-8.4, sg 1.023-1.025
  
• Color Form: Green, Tan, White
  
• Origin: Central Pacific, Eastern Asia, South Asia
  
• Family: Briareidae
  
• Insert Date: 27 May 2010

The Starburst Polyps are also referred to as Star, Eight Tentacle, Mat, or Daisy Polyps. They are usually white or brown with a white dot in the center of each polyp, although, some more rare Starburst Polyps are green. The green specimens have been called Clavularia viridis; however, they are now identified as a Briareium sp. They have the distinctive eight-leaved tentacles on each polyp. They are colonial animals with several individual polyps attached to a piece of live rock.
Accurately described as an encrusting coral, Starburst Polyps rapidly grow over adjacent rock work, coral, or even the glass of an established reef aquarium. They are a peaceful coral armed with the defensive capability of being able to retract or deflate each of their polyps in response to predation. They will not harm other corals that are placed close to their colony, but are susceptible to being damaged by any aggressive corals in the reef aquarium. They are easy to maintain in the reef aquarium and make an excellent candidate for the beginning through expert reef aquarist. They require a medium to high light level combined with a medium to strong water movement within the aquarium. For continued good health, they will also require the addition of iodine and other trace elements to the water.

The experienced hobbyist cultures the colony by taking a cutting from their encrusting base. The cutting is then glued to a hard substrate such as a rock or dead coral head.

The symbiotic algae zooxanthellae hosted within their bodies provide the majority of their nutritional requirements through photosynthesis. They also benefit from weekly feedings of micro-plankton or foods designed for filter feeding invertebrates.

Through one of the forums I'm member of (www.zeewaterforum.info) I came across this coral. Member Martin g sells them together with some other corals, even though it wasn't this one that caught my attention, but might be a nice option.
It's a fragment of his coral and costs 4 euro.

The picture is from the main colony, but to give an impression.

Yesterday we bought some Starburst Polyp fragments from martin g, there are two pieces. One is a smaller one and the other one is a bigger one which has to attach to the rock still, so it has a rubber band around it to keep it in place. This morning it was already opened a bit, unfortunately not yesterday when I took the pictures.

The Starburst polyps are doing nice still. I removed the elastic from one, and they seem to be attached to the rock already. Hope they will expend a bit on both sides soon

The starburst polyps are still doing fine

The Starburst polyps are doing ok, the ones on the right are open often, the ones on the left are sometimes partially closed.

A while ago I recorded some movies, I just took the parts out from each animal separate.

The left polyps have attached to the rock, we tried moving it a bit because it didn't open as much anymore. Probably the Soft Coral messes with it. The other polyps on the right are doing great.

Both fragments switched sides now. The one on the right is now left and the other way around. This way the small piece on the left might be doing better because the Soft Coral is no longer bothering it.

The Starburst polyps are doing great, they are really growing rapidly. Especially the centre one is doing very well, the other had some start up trouble because the Soft Coral was bothering it, but after the Angelfish was removed we switched sides and made more space between them and other corals. Within 4 months they got from being small loose fragments to solid parts of the life rock they are on.

18 september we bought 5 new corals on 3 rocks. The starburst polyps are located in the shadow of one of those rocks, which is filled with Xenia and purple mushrooms.

The left colony is expending like crazy. It has almost covered the entire rock by now and slowly moving towards other rocks now. Guess I need to go and find out how to fragment these :p. The other colony isn’t going as fast as the left one, but still doing fine. Guess that location is less good.

Yesterday I have sold some fragments again. A member from the Zeewater Forum voor Nederland en België, called Bikerdick, wanted to buy the last Red Mushroom fragment and some Kenya Tree fragments.
When he saw the aquarium he also showed interest in other things, like the Starburst Polyps. I have put a big rock next to the smaller piece, hopefully it will grow onto that and kill some hair algae as well. And I put a small rock next to the big field, but someone doesn't like me doing that because I had to do this twice already and each time I find the rock on the bottom :p.

while cleaning I bumped off a rock in the starburst polyp field. This was the original rock we got in the beginning. So maybe we can pass it onto the next person who then can create his own field with it. We do have a hole left now, but I’m sure it will close up soon.