Coral Spotlight | Acanthastrea Echinata

[mikejrice]

Common Names:*moon coral, acan, acan echinata

Difficulty Level: acans*are fairly easy to keep.

Feeding:*Acanthastrea*are extremely aggressive eaters with very capable tentacles. They will easily catch and consume most food types including frozen, liquid and even pellets. Take care as their feeding aggression can sometimes be taken out on neighboring corals.

Lighting:*Acans*will thrive in a wide range of lighting. As with most hard corals, bleaching is a concern, so always acclimate by starting them lower in the tank and slowly move them up to your desired location.

Waterflow:*Acanthastrea*can adapt to most flow condition.

Placement:*Acans*are very aggressive, so be careful to give them plenty of space.

General:*Acanthastrea*can take a long period to settle in and fully inflate. Be patient and give them time before moving them to a new placement.

Recent taxonomic changes have left micromussa echinata alone in a genus that was also previously populated by the common species lordhowensis. Acan lords have been transfered to the genus micromussa under the same species name lordhowensis.

https://captivecoral.net/portfolio/acanthastrea-2/

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[sde1500]

My orange crush echinata, has it for a while now. Very slow grower but I can definitely see the new polyps growing. Had a high nutrient problem for a bit and it turned almost completely purple. Glad to have it back to orange now. Wild to see the change happen though. It's pretty shaded, there's a very large torch 6-8 inches above it shading it very well. I don't ever see any long stingers going from either coral so far so that's good. Hope it picks up the growing pace eventually, I gave it a good size rock I want it completely covering.

 

[mikejrice]

My orange crush echinata, has it for a while now. Very slow grower but I can definitely see the new polyps growing. Had a high nutrient problem for a bit and it turned almost completely purple. Glad to have it back to orange now. Wild to see the change happen though. It's pretty shaded, there's a very large torch 6-8 inches above it shading it very well. I don't ever see any long stingers going from either coral so far so that's good. Hope it picks up the growing pace eventually, I gave it a good size rock I want it completely covering.

Looks like a nice piece. A friend of mine brought a colony of Orange Crush back from deaths door and after that it began growing FAST! I'd guess that it doubled in size within the next couple of years after that. I think he used Brightwell Restore dips over a few weeks to bring it back.

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[sde1500]

Oh wow that's an awesome sized colony. Hopefully mine holds on to a bit more of the orange, but I'd love to have it get that big.

 

[mikejrice]

Oh wow that's an awesome sized colony. Hopefully mine holds on to a bit more of the orange, but I'd love to have it get that big.

Keep it stable, and you'll get there faster than you think.

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[mikejrice]

 

[griss]

Another good one Mike