Cauliflower coral?!?!?!?!

darreljr.

darreljr.

New Member
I purchased what was told my lfs was coral called a cauliflower coral..then I bought it, it was the size of tweo thumbs put together. After a few days, it sprang to life and loksed like a tree in miniture. My queation is, when I turn on the lights in the morning, the coral is like flopped over and looks shriveled! after a while, it comes back to life and look healthy again. is this common?! Its a pink color with the "branches" like a translusent color. it almost looks like fiberglass in the "branches". I feed it DT's twice a week..is it supposed to shrivel up?! if not can someone help?! I have two flor. lights..one atinic and the other one called "coral grow". it totals of 40watts. I have and ecipse 3 hood with a fluval canaster filter for extrea filitration and water movement. any advice would help AOLT.. I plan on buying Flor. Compacts and get rideof the eclipes hood altoghther...Help!
Thanks for you help:)
Spects are in the profle.
 
krux

krux

Member
you either have a capnella or a nephthea. nephthea sp are more frequently called cauliflower coral, though some misidentify capnella as cauliflower. it usually goes by the common name of kenya tree.
if you can see the sclerites, and it is tan in color, and it expands into a tree shape, without looking at it i would say 95% that it is neph.
that said, yes it is normal for them to deflate in the darkness and reinflate when the lights come back on.
as for feeding, if you take the time to mix your dt's in some tank water and suck it up into a turkey baster, you can then gently blow it across the open polyps to ensure that enough is reaching the coral, they are not known to feed well in general in the aquarium on their own as they are not as dependant on photosynthesis as many other corals which can be kept happy just with bright light.
i have a couple nice pieces in my tank as well, it shoudld o nicely for you.
on a side note, there are reports that this is one of the species that does chemical warfare with stony corals, so most folks try not to mix these and sps corals, but with enough flow and a large enough tank you should be ok. if you ever frag it, be sure to remove it from the tank and frag it in a bucket of water outside your system as it will "bleed" toxins into the water which are harmful for your other corals. i have seen thes in my own tank when i place the mother colony back in to soon, and the polyps on surrounding corals all close up quickly for a few hours.
 
krux

krux

Member
did ya happen to read past the first sentence? the entire body of that post dealt with cauliflower coral...
 
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