Please ID this coral
- Thread starter zgg01
- Start date
Looks to me like a black sun coral.
Care Level: Moderate
Temperament: Peaceful
Lighting: Low
Waterflow: Medium
Placement: All
Water Conditions: 72-78° F, dKH 8-12, pH 8.1-8.4, sg 1.023-1.025
Color Form: Black
Supplements: Calcium, Strontium, Trace Elements
Compatibility: View Chart
Origin: Fiji, Indonesia, Solomon Islands, Tonga
Family: Dendrophylliidae
What do these Quick Stats mean? Click here
overview
The Black Tube Coral is a large polyp stony (LPS) coral, also referred to as the Branched Black Tube or Tubastrea Black Sun Coral. It is a very dark olive green to black colonial coral, markedly different than others within the species. It is often found on reef ledges or steep reef slopes in the wild, where it feeds on drifting zooplankton. Its skeleton has tubes branching in all directions.
Be careful when handling the Tube Coral; it can be quite fragile and needs to be picked up by its underside when placing it in the aquarium. A moderate water current combined with low lighting levels will provide a good environment. Usually, it will only expand its polyps in the evening unless it is hungry, when it may expand its polyps during the day.
While it is a hardy coral for the reef aquarium, it is classified as moderately difficult to maintain because it has special dietary needs. It is one of the few corals that does not contain the symbiotic algae zooxanthellae. Instead, it must be regularly fed vitamin-enriched brine shrimp or micro-plankton from an eyedropper directly to each of its polyps to promote rapid polyp budding. It will also benefit from the addition of calcium, strontium, and other trace elements to the water.
Beautiful coral I love them myself just find it hard to feed them in my tank with the amount of flow I have.
Care Level: Moderate
Temperament: Peaceful
Lighting: Low
Waterflow: Medium
Placement: All
Water Conditions: 72-78° F, dKH 8-12, pH 8.1-8.4, sg 1.023-1.025
Color Form: Black
Supplements: Calcium, Strontium, Trace Elements
Compatibility: View Chart
Origin: Fiji, Indonesia, Solomon Islands, Tonga
Family: Dendrophylliidae
What do these Quick Stats mean? Click here
overview
The Black Tube Coral is a large polyp stony (LPS) coral, also referred to as the Branched Black Tube or Tubastrea Black Sun Coral. It is a very dark olive green to black colonial coral, markedly different than others within the species. It is often found on reef ledges or steep reef slopes in the wild, where it feeds on drifting zooplankton. Its skeleton has tubes branching in all directions.
Be careful when handling the Tube Coral; it can be quite fragile and needs to be picked up by its underside when placing it in the aquarium. A moderate water current combined with low lighting levels will provide a good environment. Usually, it will only expand its polyps in the evening unless it is hungry, when it may expand its polyps during the day.
While it is a hardy coral for the reef aquarium, it is classified as moderately difficult to maintain because it has special dietary needs. It is one of the few corals that does not contain the symbiotic algae zooxanthellae. Instead, it must be regularly fed vitamin-enriched brine shrimp or micro-plankton from an eyedropper directly to each of its polyps to promote rapid polyp budding. It will also benefit from the addition of calcium, strontium, and other trace elements to the water.
Beautiful coral I love them myself just find it hard to feed them in my tank with the amount of flow I have.
You need to place them under overhangs as they wont extend their polyps to feed if under bright light.. Black sun corals don't do particularly well in captivity and usually end up starving to death.
Most of the black sun coral I've seen has been in direct sunlight, often as shallow as 2m. It will only feed at night though unless you can train it to open during the day. Substantially harder to keep alive than the regular sun coral though.
There you go. Learn something new everyday!
Mine i have had for two years and it does not get direct light from the powerfull LED's. There is a monti shading it. Mine opens everytime i feed as does the orange sun.
Never had one but read somewhere that you can use a 2litre coke bottle or similar to feed. Cut out the bottom part and put over the coral. Squirt a bit of food to allow time to go into feeding mode then feed each polyp. Leave bottle until feeding is done. Will keep the shrimps and fish at bay.
Same goes for the orange sun corals. @ zgg01 I see you have the orange sun coral as well in your tank, or so it seems from your pic. You must also feed them. Neither rely on any light so feeding is important.
Ahh. I see you are doing your research beforehand. Well done. That is the correct way!