I recently splashed out on some new inhabitants for the salty tank. It's been running 6 months now, and has settled down really well (famous last words...)
Here's one of the Montipora frags that has been growing for a couple of months and is doing really well:
I bought a mixed lot of snails and a spiny brittle star, because the CUC population of the tank was previously rather low (about 5 snails in 200L). I thought the starfish was going to be a couple of inches across but when it arrived it was bigger than my outstretched hand! The starfish loves the mound of porous rocks and I often see an arm or two protruding from the gaps between them in the hope of snagging some passing food. I think I will need to up the feeding a bit to keep it going, but it will be hopefully do a good job of scavenging leftovers:
The purple Porites I've had for a few months is doing really well and has spread onto some adjacent frag plugs (as I had hoped):
So I bought another Porites, this one is greenish-yellow. It has settled in very well and is already showing good polyp extension:
I also thought I would try my first Acropora, a genus I've never kept before. I bought a small bluish Acropora Tenuis frag, which seems to have settled in well so far. I will move it up closer to the light in due course:
And finally, considering this is a Maldivian biotope, I was unable to resist a Pavona maldivensis. I have kept Pavona before in my old tank, though not this species, so I hope I can keep this one too. It's bigger than I had expected. It actually came with a hitch-hiker brittle star that was about 2" across and free - if I'd known I was getting this I might not have bought the big one!
I think I will need to start feeding some of these corals a bit, but I'm rather out of touch with coral foods, especially since mine are almost all small-polyped species. Any recommendations?