Propagation - fish & corals

Well, I have had an explosion in growth and success in this little office tank and it was time for a change. So, I helped a fellow reefer stock their tank and am starting a new pico chapter. Not sure which direction I want to go in yet but it certainly will not include white lightening GSP in the new setup. It is way to fast growing for a small tank like this

This morning -


This afternoon-

So, I went to the lfs the other day for a test kit and something caught my eye. It seemed to be an SPS but it had HUGE polyps which were all closed. This coral was in a junk tank sitting on the bottom and was marked at $10. For the price and the mystery of it all I couldn't pass it up. So, I brought it home, acclimated it and began some research. Not an easy coral to find any information on to say the least. Luckily I have a
friend that is more tenacious than I when it comes to coral research ...

Saturday night, just after lights out... I was in the kitchen with the overhead lights on. The reef was already heading into sleep mode, but I noticed my Peppermint shrimp was out and about, very active. I'd noticed a few days ago that she was carrying eggs, and I had a feeling she was getting ready to release them. I'd not witnessed this in a very long time, and quickly dashed off to get my camera to capture the event.

The tank light was off, so I relied on the flash. Starting off ...

I purchased a nice Aussie platygyra which i suspect may actually be a Goniastrea I picked up about a year and a half ago. At about 6 months On the very top however the skeleton is taking on a bit of a brown or charred color.

It sort of resembles slime that didn't wash away, turned brown and stayed there but it won't blow off, I recently noticed it spread ...

So I'm writing this at 2:28 EST in an effort to:

Try my best to document the spawning of my leather coral. I've seen hard coral spawn, gorgonians, but have yet to see a leather tree coral spawn. I will update this on Sunday evening with pictures, but for the moment, this is so I don't leave out details I would otherwise forget.

Spawn noticed at approx. 2:09 am EST. All flow turned off immediately to determine source.

Small white dots. Gametes? Eggs? < or ...