Non photosynthetic sps coral

[encrustingacro]

Are there any species of non photosynthetic sps corals?

 

[Reef and Dive]

I don’t think so...

 

[polyppal]

No, Acropora and Montipora corals all rely on photosynthesis.

There are several Alcyonacea (Gorgonians/Soft Corals) that are non-photo, but they are typically pretty difficult to keep

 

[hds4216]

There are actually. Some SPS are found at very low depths, for example Lophelia pertusa and Madrepora oculata are found extremely deep within the sea, up to 1500 meters, where there is no light. They feed on phytoplankton, crustaceans, and krill. However, you are extremely unlikely to find them in the hobby. They grow about 1 millimeter per year, in contrast, Acropora can grow 20 cm per year, or about 200 times faster.

Here's a good article on them:

Deep-water coral - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[ScottR]

Also keep in mind that SPS is just a generic name for the hobby to use to compare against LPS.

 

[Apollo7235]

Diodogorgia Gorgonia is classified as non-photosynthetic on the World Wide Corals site

I am primarily interested in non-photosynthetic corals, so I would love to find some more in the SPS category

 

[mdb_talon]

obviously not an SPS coral, but personally I think the Spider sponge kind of looks like an SPS coral. Does that count?

 

[encrustingacro]

no, spider sponge does not count

 

[encrustingacro]

I found a nps sps coral. Apparently, some madracis are non photosynthetic.

 

[Softhammer]

Check into stylaster and the likes, that may be what you’re looking for. To my knowledge virtually no one has succeeded in keeping them alive for any amount of time.

 

[Softhammer]

Check into Distichopora also.https://reefbuilders.com/2017/06/09/distichopora/