Coral Of The Week - Sarcophytons

[seffieuk]

Iv'e never seen a green tip, very pretty

Seffie x

Seffie look closely at mine, its a green tip.

woops - how about a close up Tina?

Seffie x

 

[TigerIssey]

I will try later.

The tips on mine look smaller than musho's though so it is difficult to green to show properley.

 

[SkiFletch]

Iv'e never seen a green tip, very pretty
Ski, would you explain alleopathic toxins to those not in the know please

Seffie x

Sure can Seffie. Alleopathic chemicals are how most soft corals (especially leathers) defend themselves and compete for space on the natural reef. Most hard corals compete for space and attack each other with nematocysts. Basically stinging organelles on their tentacles or tissues that physically attack neighboring corals in an attempt to carve out space for themselves. Some soft corals, including sarcophytons, are more devious in their coral warfare. They secrete chemicals, loosely labeled/categorized as Alleopathic toxins which inhibits the skeletal growth of hard corals. They chemically interrupt the process of calcification. So if you're trying to keep a mixed reef this CAN be a problem.

Luckily activated carbon readily removes these chemicals and while they do 'stunt' the growth of hard corals, they don't stop it, just don't expect acros to grow like weeds in the same system as a sarcophyton.

 

[TigerIssey]

Ski's explanation is the reason I decided to run my system with carbon all of the time.

I also did that because running carbon intermittently or increasing the dose of carbon used can upset some corals according to Borneman in THE BOOK.

 

[zipzap]

I really like your green tip Musho! Very lovely indeed.

 

[Alex Brown]

Some great advise on here, thanks Ski. I will now choose either to run more carbon and replace more often or look at re-homing my Sarcophytons as I am headding towards more SPS.

 

[Musho3210]

Iv'e never seen a green tip, very pretty

Seffie x

Me and Tina (I think i have the name right) have different species of green tips, the person who I bought mine off from called it an ORA Green Tip, look around for one of those if you like it a lot. Kinda pricey though.

 

[TigerIssey]

Yeah I think your right, they are different green tips but neither are common in the hobby.

You got it reet its Tina

We don't get ORA over here though Mushy, the nearest is TMC and they don't tend to label stuff as TMC green tip or owt like that.

The only things they add TMC in front of are Tank Bred Fish.

I may be pursuaded at some point (probably when swapping tanks over) to frag the Sarcophyton if anyone cannot get a green tip by them.

 

[TigerIssey]

Here is a close up of the Green Tips.

Hope you can see that better Seffie.

 

[zipzap]

Just wanted to put a pic up of our new sarco frag. It has green tips.

This is the best picture i could get of it sorry!

It is 2 days old in our tank now

 

[zipzap]

just an update

our little green sarco frag! he looks great with the night light glowing green

Toadstool

 

[seffieuk]

Remember, this is a shared and ongoing resource, so don't forget to pop back and update us with your new photos and experiences in the coming months​

 

[CoMan]

Here's my newly added toadstool "Edmond". He's my very first coral. I've only had him about 4 days but I'm well happy with him! He seems to be extending a little bit more everyday.

 

[seffieuk]

Edmund is a beauty

Seffie x

 

[sorgan]

Here is mine, it was just labelled as leather toadstool

it's about 6inches in diameter and about the same high.