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esmithiii

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Blue ridge coral (Heliopora coreulea) is dark maroon or blue, not white.

BrainCoral39:

You can cut it off as close to the base as possible with sharp scissors and then use a rubber band to attach the pieces to small pieces of live Rock. The fragments will reattach themselves to the rock in a week or two. This will give your candy-cane coral some "room to breath" and give you something to trade in at the LFS. I would definitely cut it back so it is not in competition w/ the candycane coral. Also, the stumps of the sarcophyton will grow back, so you may need to repeat the process in a few months.

E
 

rBeOeBf

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Can't tell for sure from the picture, but I think it might be a type of Porites. I've got a small patch in my tank that looks like what you have pictured, beige with little white polyps. Is it encrusting the surface of the rock? This is from the Hitchhiker FAQ section here at reefs.org:


"After my live rock cured, some very small polyps started to come out on some patches tan/ yellow/ brown colored tissue. They extend out about 1/8" from the skeleton. What kind of coral is this?


This could be a species of Porites. Porites is a common SPS (SPS - acronym for Small Polyped Scleractinia, sometimes called Small Polyped Stoney, refers to such genera as Acropora, Montipora, Pocillopora, Porites, Seriatopora, Stylophora and others) coral on Indo-Pacific and Caribbean reefs. It can be encrusting, finger shaped, or dome shaped. It has tiny polyps and sometimes commensal fanworms (Spirobranchus giganteus). Porites usually requires strong illumination and wave action as they are most abundantly found in areas of high wave action and tidal flows. Similar to Montipora, Porites can be distinguished by much larger corallites (polyp walls) that are filled with septa ("teeth")."


-Bob

[ September 18, 2001: Message edited by: rBeOeBf ]
 

davelin315

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Definitely some type of leather coral, can you describe if it changes it's shape at all, maybe reaching up towards the light and "trumpeting" or does it always appear the way it is in your picture?
 

esmithiii

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How many tentacles does each polyp have? If it is 8 then it is not pociliopora, it is a soft coral.

If you can find a stalk then it is probably a sarcophyton.

E
 

esmithiii

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BlowFishAQ,

Not all soft corals are actually soft. Blue ridge coral (Heliopora) is one example of this. Mine is much darker than the photo, but maybe the color on my monitor is off, but it appears very light, almost white. If there is a stalk of any kind, it is most probably a leather- sarcophyton

E
 

monkeyboy

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Heliopora has a blue skeleton , the actual live tissue is cream colored. It looks like one of a few types of leather corals including heliopora. Take a cutting and stick it to a rock, any skeleton?
 

esmithiii

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Heliopora is an encrusting type of soft coral (in fact, it is quite hard. Mine has a dark maroon encrusting mantle with polyps the same color. None of the pictures of other specimines I have seen is that light of a color. I would not classify heliopora as a leather coral. Many merchants place this with the hard corals, even though it is in fact a member of the subclass octocorillia.

Interesting links regarding heliopora
http://exotictropicals.com/encyclo/reef/soft_cor/bluecoral.htm http://www.globaldialog.com/~jrice/coral_page/blueridge.htm http://www.marinedepotlive.com/1163454.html http://www.anchofish.com/corals_hardcorals_3.htm http://www.coralreefecosystems.com/images/blue_ridge_coral.jpg http://www.coralfarms.com/images/heliopora.jpg http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/prot_res/PR/stonycorals.html http://www.exoticfish.com/hardcorals.htm http://www.inlandaquatics.com/prod/pricelist.html
 

esmithiii

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Sue,

I didn't read your post until after I submitted mine. My heliopora is quite dark except for the leading growth edge being white as you describe.
 

Carpentersreef

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Maybe this is overkill, but my vote is for Heliopora, as well. It is spreading out identical to mine. If I look real close, I can see the polyps are identical. You won't be able to cut it with scissors, either. It's got a hard skeleton, kinda like SPS.
When I first bought my Heliopora, it was completely white. It is now the typical brown with white growth tips. I think the original white I got it as was a result of lack of proper nutrients in my LFS's display tank.

Mitch
 

Blowfishaq

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Esmithiii
I beg to differ with you. My blue ridge looks exactly like the photo above. I lost most of it in a tank crash 2 yrs ago and it is now growing back. It grows in a sheet over the old skeleton and is brown with polyps. I will try to post a photo when I get home.
 

jamesw

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Did the coral come directly from the indo pacific that way? If so it's a blue ridge or a type of leather coral.

If it came from another hobbiests tank, it's probably briareum, an encrusting gorgonian.

HTH
James
 

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