Corals

[bones]

I have seen people refer to Soft Corals, Hard Corals, Mushrooms, and Gongorians as Corals, what is the difference between the different kinds?

 

[crispcritr]

that one would take to much space to answer here. do a internet search. great sites out there

 

[iechy]

In real simple terms soft corals, like it sounds, are soft and fleshy and don't have a calcerous skeleton. Hard corals do have a calcerous skeleton although they don't always look "hard" with the polyps extended such as with bubbles and frogspawn etc. but the skeleton beneath them is hard. Hard corals are further divided into SPS and LPS. LPS generally have the soft looking polyps hiding their skeletons whereas SPS generally look like what you expect to see when you hear hard coral. Mushrooms are a really hardy type of coral which I think are sort of like a cousin to corals as they don't fit exactly into the other groups. Gorgonians include things like sea fans and sea pens and have branching hard skeletons, mostly, with polyps that extend out of them to catch food particles in the water column. Coral identification and classification is somewhat still in flux as certain species etc. don't fit neatly into where they are placed. In general SPS require very high lighting, LPS fairly high lighting, Soft corals moderate lighting , mushrooms moderate to low lighting and gorgonians very high light to no light depending on species. Feeding requirements vary but as a rule of thumb the less light a coral needs the more dependant it is on feedings. If you plan on keeping coral by the book, can't think of the actual name(I think Corals:selection and husbandry), by Eric Bornamen it is considered to be one of the best.I wish I had it here with me I could have given you more detailed info. HTH. GL.