Tired Posted December 3 I spotted this guy when I bought this rock. It's Caribbean rock, and has lots of nice Caribbean life on it, but I figured this was dead due to all the coraline over it. It was exposed like this, briefly, but it's been pretty much constantly covered since late September. Except today, I repositioned the rocks, and this wound up in a bit of light and flow. And I noticed it had a puffy texture to a spot of it. I touched the puffiness with my pipette, and it retreated. Turns out, this stuff's alive. That puffy brown section is the live bit. It looks like four full polyps embedded in the skeleton, and a tiny new bit sprouting out. So, what is it, and what do I do for it? Also, how aggressive is it? It's in a very inconvenient place, underneath a rock that's covered all over the top with lots of great macroalgae. I think I may chisel that whole skeleton off the rock so I can place it somewhere else. Do I need to do anything to help it recover, or will light, flow, and maybe a bit of food be enough? I'm assuming it can grow over the coraline and make a new skeleton just fine. Edit: it's a starlet or lesser starlet, I think. Care on this one? Quote Share this post Link to post
Lovemyreef2015 Posted December 3 Not sure what it is at this point. Looks similar to either favites or a favia coral or even what you mentioned. I would get it off the rock and acclimate it to light. It would be better if you could just turn the rock over but either way the coral will need light. I would start with low to medium flow and see how it does for awhile. Cool coral hitchhiker! Quote Share this post Link to post
Tired Posted December 3 It looks like favia, yes, but I don't think those are known to come in all that often on live rock. Starlet coral is apparently a pretty common find. I have to find my brother's chisel to get it off there. It's exposed to a little bit of light now, and these apparently don't need much light in the first place, so I think it'll be okay here for now. It's gotten even puffier since I took the photo, so I think it likes being there. Sorry I put you underneath this rock for a couple of months, coral. Quote Share this post Link to post
