Anthony Calfo
Well-known member
hey, gang 
Mike O. was on the throne, where he does some of his best thinking, and suggested I post a coral of the week image and open a discussion about the animal's husbandry and handling. Y'all can chime in with similar or contrasting experiences and all will be archived for the benefit of all.
For this first installment, a bit of an odd launch perhaps: a protected Atlantic and Caribbean scleractinian - the genus Agaricia
There are several reasons you may be asking yourself... why? Why this genus? They are not very remarkable in color at first glance. Is it just to tantalize with that which we cannot have? Have I stopped taking my medication? Whats that smell!?! Hmmm... I digress.
These corals in fact are stunningly beautiful... and some aquarists do have them. Read on. If you are lucky enough to come across one, rest assured it can be kept. More importantly... it can be fragged And shared... and in time become established in the hobby. Some Atlantic Millepora got established this way in the hobby about ten years ago. With the knowledge and networking aquarists have nowadays - Agaricia could have potential.
Let's get the legality out of the way - Agaricia is a protected coral and you/we cannot make legal collections of wild specimens. However, beyond the occasional frags and colonies that make it through with aquacultured live rock... there have been recent imports to the US of live rock comprised almost wholly of recently pulverized and encrusted foliaceous "shingles" of Agaricia corallums. Its almost wholly dead (the Agaricia) matter. Almost If you are lucky enough to get a living frag of this beauty... its like finding gold.
I mentioned that its a beauty... yet anyone that been diving and seen this extremely common coral... and any aquarist that lays eyes on it sees a mostly unremarkable brown coral. It most closely resembles Pachyseris from the Pacific.
Yet with any of the popular blue-heavy fluorescent or halide lamps in the hobby, this coral reveals stunningly unique metallic copper colored tiny polyps!!! With just the actinics on... this beauty looks like twinkling stars! Its like nothing else you have ever seen.
Agaricia occurs over a very wide range on the reef from 3 feet to 240 foot. Quite a few morphologies accordingly. It is... ah... a very adaptable coral to say the least. A majority of colonies in this genus however occur below 60 feet. Regardless... most any frag that slips into the hobby will likely have endured some considerable duress on import. Play it safe and offer dim/conservative reef lighting at first. Use shade cloths/screen mesh (plastic flyscreen) over the specimen for the first several weeks in a quanratine tank. Do the same on acclimation to the display at a lower depth. They can be acclimated to much brighter lighting in time.
Polyps on Agaricia are smaller than perhaps any coral you have ever seen in your life. You can categorically rule out offering any prepared/bottled foods. You cannot see this coral feed organismally. Can we assume that such zooxanthellate species occurring at great depth and having such tiny polyps have evolved to feed more heavily on dissolved organics? Perhaps. Nonetheless... limited reports of captive care indicate that it is hardy under low to medium light, grows with moderate to strong water flow and seems to favor a bit of a higher nutrient load than other popular corals.
So, the short story: keep them only in mature tanks (preferably with mature refugia inline) for improved feeding opportunities, acclimate specimens slowly to low light at first, lamp colors favoring the blue end of the spectrum (10k K or colder) are perhaps best, and moderate to strong water flow is needed (20X+ turnover)
God bless you if you are lucky enough to find one of these living jewels.
kindly,
Anthony
Mike O. was on the throne, where he does some of his best thinking, and suggested I post a coral of the week image and open a discussion about the animal's husbandry and handling. Y'all can chime in with similar or contrasting experiences and all will be archived for the benefit of all.
For this first installment, a bit of an odd launch perhaps: a protected Atlantic and Caribbean scleractinian - the genus Agaricia
There are several reasons you may be asking yourself... why? Why this genus? They are not very remarkable in color at first glance. Is it just to tantalize with that which we cannot have? Have I stopped taking my medication? Whats that smell!?! Hmmm... I digress.
These corals in fact are stunningly beautiful... and some aquarists do have them. Read on. If you are lucky enough to come across one, rest assured it can be kept. More importantly... it can be fragged
And shared... and in time become established in the hobby. Some Atlantic Millepora got established this way in the hobby about ten years ago. With the knowledge and networking aquarists have nowadays - Agaricia could have potential.Let's get the legality out of the way - Agaricia is a protected coral and you/we cannot make legal collections of wild specimens. However, beyond the occasional frags and colonies that make it through with aquacultured live rock... there have been recent imports to the US of live rock comprised almost wholly of recently pulverized and encrusted foliaceous "shingles" of Agaricia corallums. Its almost wholly dead (the Agaricia) matter. Almost
If you are lucky enough to get a living frag of this beauty... its like finding gold.I mentioned that its a beauty... yet anyone that been diving and seen this extremely common coral... and any aquarist that lays eyes on it sees a mostly unremarkable brown coral. It most closely resembles Pachyseris from the Pacific.
Yet with any of the popular blue-heavy fluorescent or halide lamps in the hobby, this coral reveals stunningly unique metallic copper colored tiny polyps!!! With just the actinics on... this beauty looks like twinkling stars! Its like nothing else you have ever seen.
Agaricia occurs over a very wide range on the reef from 3 feet to 240 foot. Quite a few morphologies accordingly. It is... ah... a very adaptable coral to say the least. A majority of colonies in this genus however occur below 60 feet. Regardless... most any frag that slips into the hobby will likely have endured some considerable duress on import. Play it safe and offer dim/conservative reef lighting at first. Use shade cloths/screen mesh (plastic flyscreen) over the specimen for the first several weeks in a quanratine tank. Do the same on acclimation to the display at a lower depth. They can be acclimated to much brighter lighting in time.
Polyps on Agaricia are smaller than perhaps any coral you have ever seen in your life. You can categorically rule out offering any prepared/bottled foods. You cannot see this coral feed organismally. Can we assume that such zooxanthellate species occurring at great depth and having such tiny polyps have evolved to feed more heavily on dissolved organics? Perhaps. Nonetheless... limited reports of captive care indicate that it is hardy under low to medium light, grows with moderate to strong water flow and seems to favor a bit of a higher nutrient load than other popular corals.
So, the short story: keep them only in mature tanks (preferably with mature refugia inline) for improved feeding opportunities, acclimate specimens slowly to low light at first, lamp colors favoring the blue end of the spectrum (10k K or colder) are perhaps best, and moderate to strong water flow is needed (20X+ turnover)
God bless you if you are lucky enough to find one of these living jewels.
kindly,
Anthony
