Is there a problem with my cactus coral??

[Darryn Lyon]

It's always looked "fluffy" and wavy, and now I'm not sure what's going on. It happened rather sudden. You know how zoanthids close and open? Could it just be doing the equivalent of that? All my other coral looks great. Does coral randomly do that?

 

[Reeferdood]

Tell us a little about your setup and parameters....

 

[Tab28]

I know it is small but it kinda looks like a hydnophora

 

[Tahoe61]

^ Yup that is Hydnophora, and yes they do withdraw their polyps, but always trouble shoot chemistry when you see a change in coral appearance.

 

[Darryn Lyon]

Wow, you guys are absolutely correct, my mistake. I'm still new at coral and saltwater tanks in general. The store I bought it from said it was cactus coral but it looks MUCH more like hydnophora. It's now starting to extend it's polyps again. I should've mentioned that it's a new piece, we got it this last weekend, and it could just be getting used to the new water/tank. It caught my eye, it's such a unique and beautiful coral. Fascinating piece. I'm shooting some Hikari coralific gel in the tank about twice a week for this piece, a pipeorgan coral, some zoanthids, and some green hammer coral. This one is definitely my favorite though. Is twice a week too much? I do it at night when the lights are out, and after inject it into the water I shut off the filter for about 10 minutes.

 

[themcnertney]

cool. i want one.

 

[Tab28]

Both cactus pavona and hydnophora are high light and aggressive. But hydnophora takes the crown. It is the SPS version of acan echinata. It can spit out a web of death if it feels any coral is too close. So using foresight in placement.

 

[Darryn Lyon]

This is excellent to know, thank you. Here is the placement of all my coral. Bottom left to right is green favia, pipeorgan coral, and the hydnophora. Higher up in the center is the green hammer coral, and higher right is some zoanthids.