nm reef
Active Member
Plerogyra sinuosa ... is the type I keep in my reef. It was origionally purchased about 20 months ago as a fist sized speciman. It is now about the size of a football when fully inflated and continues to be one of my favorite additions.
The inflated "bubbles" are reported to actually be modified tentacles that act as photosynthetic modulators...they adjust to the available lighting in order to provide for the zooxanthellae contained within the "bubbles". Basically they inflated to increase tissue exposed to the available lighting in order to get more or less exposure depending on its environment. Intense lighting likely smaller bubble size...lower lighting levels the bubbles may expand larger to recieve more available light.
After lights out mine normally extends feeding tentacles and closes up the "bubbles"...these feeder tentacles are constantly in search of a meal from the water column. Mine likes a large meal of mysis/shrimp/krill etc. and can comsume a large portion. Warning though...its reported that they tend to grow rapidly when direct fed on a regular basis...I tend to limit mine to maybe one big meal a week. The rest of the time it gets its nurishment from the lighting and the water column.
Mine is a metallic green and colors can vary from ivory to cream to bright green. Reports indicate that they can do well in moderate to high levels of lighting but prefer a low to moderate current. Care should be taken with placement due to the potential for damage caused by the sweeper tentacles that can inflict some serious damage to near by corals.
So...thats about the extent of my knowledge...it is definitely one of my favorite LPS corals. Mine has gradually grown to a large size and sits top center of my reef....it is developing into the center piece coral of the collection I keep. Day to day and sometimes hour to hour it can change size and appearence....always an attention getter when folks visit.
The inflated "bubbles" are reported to actually be modified tentacles that act as photosynthetic modulators...they adjust to the available lighting in order to provide for the zooxanthellae contained within the "bubbles". Basically they inflated to increase tissue exposed to the available lighting in order to get more or less exposure depending on its environment. Intense lighting likely smaller bubble size...lower lighting levels the bubbles may expand larger to recieve more available light.
After lights out mine normally extends feeding tentacles and closes up the "bubbles"...these feeder tentacles are constantly in search of a meal from the water column. Mine likes a large meal of mysis/shrimp/krill etc. and can comsume a large portion. Warning though...its reported that they tend to grow rapidly when direct fed on a regular basis...I tend to limit mine to maybe one big meal a week. The rest of the time it gets its nurishment from the lighting and the water column.
Mine is a metallic green and colors can vary from ivory to cream to bright green. Reports indicate that they can do well in moderate to high levels of lighting but prefer a low to moderate current. Care should be taken with placement due to the potential for damage caused by the sweeper tentacles that can inflict some serious damage to near by corals.
So...thats about the extent of my knowledge...it is definitely one of my favorite LPS corals. Mine has gradually grown to a large size and sits top center of my reef....it is developing into the center piece coral of the collection I keep. Day to day and sometimes hour to hour it can change size and appearence....always an attention getter when folks visit.
