DD Figi Purple Tree Coral (Stereonephthya sp.)

HPark

New member
Hi all,

I purchased the Stereonephthya sp. below from DD Friday.

Coming Tuesday! Did as much research as possible on the coral before purchase but was surprised there isn't more info available, especially if its feeding requirements aren't as rigorous as most NPS.

Summary of what I gathered: Not a traditional NPS coral, but doesn't seem to be exclusively photosynthetic either. Likes medium to high flow. It will be housed in a 20g with a bunch of other soft corals that seem to be loving less than pristine water quality. Eventually it'll be moved into a 65g shallow I'm planning to be mainly soft corals and NPS. I'll try to document my experience. Cool looking coral -- would be an awesome compliment to my green nepthea. Hope I can sustain it.

Any advice, comments or experiences (or pics!) would be appreciated.

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I have one but its not from DD. Its been doing good from the time I got it. I feed my tank at least once a week with coral foods but they only get what I feed the fish which is a lot of different things.

My opinion is still treat it as a carnation coral. I have had mine for 2 months so only time will tell.

It does act like all other leathers in regards to inflating and deflating. I'll keep posting what I see
 
Ended up getting fairly busy and did not take pictures yet.

Couple of initial thoughts: really odd texture to this coral. I've never handled a dendro so no idea if its similar but it reminded me of handling a shark/ray -- rough/stratchy texture.

Not very purple to be frank. Hoping LED lights will bring the purple out eventually, but for now, it's in a tank with PC's.

Only other thing to note -- this coral had dozens/maybe hundreds of mini-brittle stars all over its polyps/stalk. Odd...
 
Updated pictures -- notice the brittle stars. Agreed, not very purple but still satisfied with the coral. I ordered a lemon tree frag that came today. It was ripped off the plug during shipping. Hopeful it'll heal up but fairly small so pics difficult with it being in a diy frag container. Will try to grab some soon.


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The "purple tree" from LA are photosynthetic. the more it expands, the less purple color it gets but I got mine from LA 6 months ago and contracts when the lights go out and extend when the lights are on. Gets pretty big and easily propagated. One of the branch broke off by itself and I zipped tied it to a piece of rubble and it is now a small colony in itself. If you are lucky, LA sometimes gets in a combo of yellow and purple. Very nice contrast and compliments to each other.
 
Mine definitely reacts to light. I actually picked up the lemon/purple variety in my last order. Really small frag that detached from plug but its colors are great. Curious if I should try to wedge it somewhere secure or glue?
 
Will try to glue tonight and take pictures of the lemon frag.

For what its worth -- liveaquaria said of this coral's feeding regime...

"When in our care, the Purple Tree Corals are typically given a mixture of Phytoplan, Zoplan, Goniopowder, and Soft Coral Grow. This is mixed in equal parts with defrosted Nutrimar Ova, and is then broadcasted into the holding tank or spot fed."
 
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