have a question about my Orange Lithophyllon (sp?)

Duane Clark · Apr 30, 2018

I have had the above for about 2 months. Is this a chalice or some other type of coral? I think it is a chalice from what I can find so if so, how aggressive are they? I ask because I recently placed mine about 1in from my very prized candy cane (in place for 4 months and has always looked spectacular). Now the half closest to the orange litho will not open and the neck on one of the heads has a white section just below the head (the coral head or polyp is still bright green). Anyway, I have moved the Litho another inch away but am curious if that is far enough? I am not even sure this is the cause because I looked at night and don't see any feeder tentacles from the litho but the coincidence is too great. I can reorganize some of my acan lords to give the litho about 5 inches between it and any other corals but wanted to avoid that if possible. Meanwhile the Orange Litho is happy as can be.

nautical_nathaniel · Apr 30, 2018

"Chalice" corals are a pretty broad group of different coral all grouped together since they have very similar characteristics. I would consider it fairly aggressive to nearby corals, so I would maintain a 3"-6" buffer space but you've also got to keep in mind that the buffer will diminish as the coral grows outwards, so try not to keep anything super expensive or super important to you nearby.

I suspect this coral did some damage to your candy cane coral, mostl likely in the middle of the night since that is when they disperse their sweeper tentacles the most.

Duane Clark · May 4, 2018

Come to find out the litho May have been the issue...I moved it anyway BUT I really think it was the three large aptasias I found behind the candy cane. Now that they are gone, the candy is returning back to normal. Not 100% but looking much better.

nano reef · Dec 21, 2020

I rarely see tentacles on any of my frags. I do check sometimes hours after lights out. I have a question though. Do smaller frags still have the long tentacles because most of mine are small frags. I do have some pretty close together because I bought to many at once. I am getting ready to move some thought to another tank to give more room. Is there a certain distance I need to keep as frags? Because I am fixing to upgrade to a larger tank so dont want t o glue them down for that reason. My space invader pectina has one sweeper out almost all the time and looks like my bubble coral has lots of them. That is a much larger frag!