Sympodium??? Fun new blue coral!

[quaz]

Sorry I don't have a pic but I saw a little frag of what looked like a short tenticle goniopora at a LFS. It is baby blue. The polyps look a bit like clove polyp.

Anyone have pictures or more info on these corals. I found one picture on google that looked like it was in a tidal zone and grew in mounds like a favite or other brain type. but it was half out of the water.

But what a great baby blue color! I'll try to get pics of someone else can't get some up.

 

[israel.kendall]

They are cool looking corals, but I think they are softies, not LPS.

 

[mscarpena]

They are poping up all over. Cherrycorals had some. Not cheap though.

 

[zachfishman]

Neat looking coral. I wonder if it spreads like GSP. I'll get some when everyone has frags and it's cheap.

 

[quaz]

Guess they are softies. looking like clove polyp I wonder if they spread like some of the outbreaks I've seen in peoples tanks.

Mods: guess you could move this to another forum for softies.

 

[quaz]

OK... wow! the blue variety is much harder to find. All the pictures that I've found have been more green. THis is exactly what they have at the LFS.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Live-Coral-Exot...453?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cb2a410f5

 

[kichimark]

I have a patch growing in my tank. Bought it as a dime sized peice and it is about half a dollar bill sized now. I would't say it grows fast and it appears to be doing great in medium light and flow.

 

[Ceridwen85]

We have some at my LFS - seem to be a cross between Xenia and Star/clove polyps. Definitely a softy. The ones we have, have GREEN tentacles with a bright blue center. Seem to like a moderate flow and don't seem too picky on light (Low to high - one is at the bottom of the tank, the other is at the top, both are growing - slowly though) Came in about a month ago dime sized and are now are about nickel sized.

Definitely looking at picking it up sometime soon - though still a little pricey for my taste.

 

[kichimark]

We have some at my LFS - seem to be a cross between Xenia and Star/clove polyps. Definitely a softy. The ones we have, have GREEN tentacles with a bright blue center. Seem to like a moderate flow and don't seem too picky on light (Low to high - one is at the bottom of the tank, the other is at the top, both are growing - slowly though) Came in about a month ago dime sized and are now are about nickel sized.

Definitely looking at picking it up sometime soon - though still a little pricey for my taste.

a lfs around here has a 20 dollar frag tank with some in there. I paid 45 when it came out...at least when I noticed it haha.

 

[RokleM]

[moved]...

 

[bobbyboussy]

careful on that one it can take over your tank

 

[cjdevito]

OK... wow! the blue variety is much harder to find. All the pictures that I've found have been more green. THis is exactly what they have at the LFS.

The consensus amongst those of us keeping sympodium for awhile seems to be that both the bluer, smaller polyped version and the greener, larger polyped version are likely the same morph just adapted to different local conditions. In other words, regardless of which version you buy, it'll end up shifting to match your conditions. I have both, and it does appear that this is the case. Jury's still out though.

Neat looking coral. I wonder if it spreads like GSP.

They don't. They definitely have a tendency to mound more than to encurst outwards. They do spread, but far more slowly than GSP.

careful on that one it can take over your tank

Not likely. It doesn't grow particularly quickly and is easily removed if you choose to peel it off.

seem to be a cross between Xenia and Star/clove polyps.

They are a xeniid, cousins to xenia, anthelia, sarcothelia, etc. The family was established by Ehrenberg back in the 1840s and hasn't been revised since then, so take it's taxonomy with a grain of salt. There are two species described within the family, but frankly both descriptions are suspect due to their age.

 

[mokusei]

Just picked up a frag of this. Can I do an iodide or Revive dip before I put it in my tank?

 

[mokusei]

Just picked up a frag of this. Can I do an iodide or Revive dip before I put it in my tank?

Well, I went ahead and dipped in Revive. An hour later the sympodium frag is looking good and showing some PE.

 

[israel.kendall]

Well, I went ahead and dipped in Revive. An hour later the sympodium frag is looking good and showing some PE.

Nice! Do you have any pics?

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[Scma]

Picked up a frag a few weeks ago... From what i've been seeing I got off cheap with this one!

 

[israel.kendall]

Picked up a frag a few weeks ago... From what i've been seeing I got off cheap with this one!

Wow, that's a really nice one! I like the colors in this one better than most I've seen pictures of online. I might have to put sympodium on my wish list now....

 

[slapshot]

I have a piece of the blue and the green, they don't seem to be changing colors. No way it will take over your tank. Grows way too slow for that. It is an interesting coral to add.

 

[mokusei]

I paid $20 for a frag that's about 1 square inch.

 

[cjdevito]

I paid $20 for a frag that's about 1 square inch.

You did very well, price wise, even considering that the price for these has been slowly coming down. The first frag of it I picked up back at the end of august ran me $65 for 3/4" x 1/4".