Orange leptoseris info-RARE?

[4Swanson2Reefer0N00b]

Ok so I’ve hunted far and wide for information in this coral and have struggled to find anything usable to help mine grow.   But I think I’ve finally figured it out and wanted to share. 

 

Flow-mine has found happiness in literally one of the lowest flow areas of my tank.  Just under my return flow nozzles where most of the circulation is completely deadened by a large rock which tends to help the skimmer do its thing.  

 

Lighting-I have a 32w led fluval marine light.  It’s nothing special as far as I know however it’s hard to argue with the growth results.  The lepto is in a corner of my fluval evo 13.5 on top of about 1 inch of substrate and in top of a smallish rock so in total about 2 inches up from the bottom glass of the tank and in the corner maybe 1 inch from each side of the tank/glass. The light itself rests on the top of the tank with a piece of clear plexiglass between. 

 

Food-I’ve seen it swell up like a balloon and inflate.  I’ve seen the tiny mouths open.  If you can turn off your flow and get some food on it they will enjoy anything I think.  

 

So how do you know it’s growing?  It’s a slow Grower if conditions aren’t right.  Much faster when they are.  It will get real hairy looking and the orange will pop.  

 

Full disclosure-mine was stung by my rbtas and that damaged it a lot and it took a long time to recover but I’m finally seeing the hairiness again and I just know it’s going to take off and wanted to share my enthusiasm.  

[xM3THODx]

good info...true that there's not much detailed info about care other than the basic...prefers lower light and flow. 

[4Swanson2Reefer0N00b]

More than I’ve been able to find anywhere else.   What are you looking for?  I was hoping to get a discussion going.  

[Garf]

I have a similar lepto, it was called 24k Leptoseris. It is more yellow, and the store had a large one at the top of their large LPS display tank. I have my frag in a similar spot, put top, and in medium flow. While not getting directly blasted by the powerhead, the flow is going over the top of it, as the lepto is under it. 

[xM3THODx]

Leptoseris isn't to common around my area LFS, so I was very lucky to see a frag for sale. They didn't get their colony from a wholesaler but from a local reefer who broke down their tank. After doing some research on the name, I determined that its the Tangerine Juice Lepto, a very bright orange. 

 

I guess I can give some info about the placement...I've fragged it in several pieces and glued them in different areas, each frag under different lighting from high to low and what I can say is the frag in the low light is doing great and growing quite fast. It's placed on the side wall of the rockwork so it's an ideal coral to fill in those types of areas of your scape.

 

One thing Ive noticed and I should post in the Coral Fight Club thread is that it beating my Red Montipora Digitata. Very surprised since the lepto has a very thin encrusting characteristic.

[Garf]

Perhaps we could give some more information about light and flow. Low light and flow in a mixed reef could be miles different than low flow and light in an LPS tank. 

 

Not having a PAR meter, and going with the published specs of my trulemen strips, I have 36.4w and run mostly blues. Peak lighting period for a couple hours is probably 150 PAR where my lepto is placed. I have two eFlux wave pumps, at low flow, 20 and 30%, for something like 400gph. The lepto is probably getting 1/4 of that where it is placed. Pictures sometime later, I beat my frag up pretty bad getting it off the plug. 

[cruiZe]

When I had one of those it did better in partial shade, got bleached easily from too much light  

[OldManSea]

Hi, I have 3 leptoseris in a Red Sea emax170.  One is a tangerine, one a fake jack o lantern, and one is more or less red.  All of them have been in different spots in the tank over the past 2+ years.  Currently the fake jacko lantern is in a low light (par 150) lower flow area.  It has excellent coloration and slower growth than when it was at par 225.  The other 2 Are up higher around par 300 and flow at the higher end of medium.  The tangerine is growing so fast I have to scrape it away from a couple of acro’s every 2 weeks - it kills any acro tissue that it touches.  The red one is also growing rapidly.  I feed with reefroids once a week.

[DesertReefOasis]

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but this is the most convo I've found on this coral! I just got a Tangerine Juice Lepto yesterday morning for my 20g dropoff tank w/ a red sea reefled 50w light.  I have the light on acclimation mode for 7 days, and placed my lepto toward the top of the tank between two rocks to hold the frag plug in place so it's on the "cliff side" in the shadows.  Wondering y'alls input on this location? I'd love that splash of color up there and have read it doesn't like so much light... So hoping being in the shade up there it could still thrive - thoughts?

 

(Disclosure: once I can see the frags are happy where I've placed them I'll be cutting down the plugs and gluing the frags to the rocks... so if the Lepto is happy there it would be glued to the side of the rock instead of held in place by the plug being squished between the two rocks.)

[OldManSea]

I have my tangerine at the top of the rock work next to several acro’s that grow well.  It has great color.  I have a red one that grows upward and down the rock work.  It grows well in both directions.  Unlike the tangerine that has great color in the bright light, the red one is much redder in the part that is vertical on the rock face and thus shaded.

[DesertReefOasis]

37 minutes ago, OldManSea said:

I have my tangerine at the top of the rock work next to several acro’s that grow well.  It has great color.  I have a red one that grows upward and down the rock work.  It grows well in both directions.  Unlike the tangerine that has great color in the bright light, the red one is much redder in the part that is vertical on the rock face and thus shaded.

Awesome! Thanks so much for your feedback!