Sympodium?

[Anonymous]

I bought yet another new coral today. I hadn't intended to unless there was something special, but found what I thought was a Sympodium, of the sort that CJ has in his Elos. The polyps have not fully opened yet (it's been in the tank a few hours), but here are some shots. If it is Sympodium, what are the care requirements? I've read both that it likes only moderate to low flow and also that it prefers high flow. It's in a reasonably high flow position at the moment. Most places I've seen suggest it prefers bright light.

The LFS said he'd never seen it before and this is the first time I've seen it in Japan. Only about $30 as well.

[rimg]http://i867.photobucket.com/albums/ab238/TheEscapedApe/Long%20awaited/P1010110.jpg[/rimg]

[rimg]http://i867.photobucket.com/albums/ab238/TheEscapedApe/Long%20awaited/P1010109.jpg[/rimg]

[rimg]http://i867.photobucket.com/albums/ab238/TheEscapedApe/Long%20awaited/P1010107.jpg[/rimg]

 

[Anonymous]

Funky, I like it.

 

[Anonymous]

Yep, no question, you've got yourself some sympodium.

With mine I've definitely found it doesn't like high flow. Low but perceptible seems to be the preference. Lighting's another issue, I can make an argument that it likes high lighting and an argument that it lights low lighting - but it looks better and colors up more nicely in, believe it or not, lower lighting. I have mine at the bottom of my tank, about 18" below 72w of Elos LEDs.

I have sympodium from two different sources and they don't act or look exactly the same even after half a year of being side-by-side in my tank, so I cautiously believe there are at least two distinct morphs or possibly species making the rounds. The type of mine that yours most closely resembles is a slow grower with lousy polyp extension; it's not uncommon for it to open for fifteen minutes every other day for a week at a time. It has slightly larger polyps than the other kind, more distinctly green with very visible red brown pinnules. The other type I have grows much more quickly, has almost no green in it's polyps (almost all blue), and has visibly smaller pinnules that are closer to brown than to red.

I'm including a pic for reference.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks CJ. Very helpful to hear your experience. I'll try moving it in a little bit. It's now fully extended, with all the polyps out, but I'll find somewhere with a bit less flow.

 

[Len]

I've been doing this for 20+ years and I've never seen one for sale :x I think I need to get out more Very nice Tom!

 

[Anonymous]

Been seeing these pop up occasionally here labelled as 'Blue Octopus Coral'. Seems to be halfway between a colt coral (alyconium?) and some kind of Xenid in terms of looks / behaviour. I have a small piece in my 15 gallon nano about midway up in the tank and get only marginal polyp extension. Based on Charles most astute observations perhaps I should move it a tad up or down, giving it a week or two to see if it 'blooms' as it were.

 

[Anonymous]

I must have been lucky I think. It was partly extended soon after being put in the tank and fully extended by a day later. It's now looking even happier in a lower flow part of the tank, fully extended.

 

[Anonymous]

'Octopus Coral' is a new one to me, but I'll add it to the stack of the other dozen or so common names different vendors have tried sticking on it. Beats 'stargazer xenia' or 'steel cloves', at least.

The greenish type - which seems to be the more common one entering the trade - really requires patience. It reacts so slowly and tends to stay closed so much of the time, and has such a glacially slow growth rate, that simply trying to figure out if it's 'happy' or not can take a week at a time. The bluer variety seems to be easier and more forgiving.

Btw, if it's really not happy it melts. A couple of ridiculously small frags I acquired from a craptastic vendor didn't even last a week. When it's on it's way out it goes quickly... you'll have about a days warning with the closed polyps shrivelling visibly before it poofs. As long as you don't hit that point you're pretty much okay, even if it stays closed a lot.

 

[Anonymous]

I must have been lucky I think. It was partly extended soon after being put in the tank and fully extended by a day later. It's now looking even happier in a lower flow part of the tank, fully extended.

See how it behaves over the coming weeks. Be nice if it stays open full time, but don't be too surprised if it doesn't.

 

[Anonymous]

I must have been lucky I think. It was partly extended soon after being put in the tank and fully extended by a day later. It's now looking even happier in a lower flow part of the tank, fully extended.

See how it behaves over the coming weeks. Be nice if it stays open full time, but don't be too surprised if it doesn't.

Thanks for the heads up. I won't get too downcast if it starts to look a bit out of sorts. I assume the advice is just to leave be and allow it to recover/reopen by itself?

I was also quite lucky that it is about 4-5 times as big as the pic above indicates (I wanted close ups, so only focused on one bit).

One oddity about this one though is that each patch of Sympodium is surrounded by yellowish-white sponge (smooth and regular, so much so I originally thought it was rock). I've been wondering whether at some point I should think about removing that.