Pavona Melavensis

[matttaylor]

Anyone have any experience with this coral? I just acquired the mother colony that John at Your Reef had, and am wondering what peoples experience has been. John said that he was selling frags for $50 per 1" piece, so it must be in high demand. And he said that it fell from it's place in his tank and landed on one side, so that side has lost some tissue. From the other person i've talked to, his was a fast grower. I've got it in a high flow area and under bright lighting. It seems to be responding well so far, as some of the damaged tissue has started to regain color. J

 

[Pico1]

That piece looks cool when it's colored up and healthy.

 

[matttaylor]

I have to agree. The contrast between the main color (light rusty) and the ring around the coralites (gold) is absolutely amazing. The majority of the colony is intact and healthy, just the side it fell on is in bad shape. If it is indeed a fast grower, i should have it in perfect health all around in no time.

 

[dots]

I had a piece of it and looks good at its best and has a interesting polyp. But in the end a VERY slow grower and lost interest. But I was feeding too little then and probably was the cause of that.

Here is an older pic, the pavona is in the back. FYI, that green piece front and center in Johns tank can be seen here as well before I traded it in to him. And oh yeah, the anenome I cut in half.

 

[bookfish]

Pavona MALDIVENSIS (as in the Maldive Islands) prefers medium to medium low lighting (low level mh's are fine) and will bleach out if put under too much light. You'll know it's happy if you can see an unskeletonized growing edge, like an echino. Nice coral, but definitely lower light. HTH.

 

[matttaylor]

I just found out that it is in fact a Maldivensis (Thanks Ed and bookfish). And now a position change is in order to a lower light area. It does seem to be doing well currently, feeding tentacles are out so i added some food for it. And a lower light level does seem to make sense, since the darker more natural color is in between branches and on the 2 small "new colonies" lower on the rock.