Bi Color Favia Coral, Aquacultured

Bi Color Favia corals, aquacultured are excellent hardy corals for any reef aquarium. Favia corals have a large round like or dome like shaped colonies. The common names for Favia corals include, moon coral, green moon coral, pineapple coral, brain coral, closed brain coral, and star coral. They are an excellent choice for both the beginner and the advanced aquarist.

Difficulty Moderately easy to care for.

Aggressiveness The Favia coral has potent sweeper tentacles that it will extend out well past its base, keeping other corals from growing too close and will sting anything within reach with its nematocysts. Because of this, you should take care to ensure that your coral has enough room both now and in the future, once the corals in your tank have begun to fill-in the available space.

Water-flow Like most large polyp stony corals, the Favia benefits from moderate water flow. .

Lighting The Bleeding Apple Favia requires moderate lighting levels (from PAR 150-250). T5's, Metal Halides, or LED's can all grow a healthy coral when the proper PAR levels are provided. We recommend a 14-20K color spectrum for best coloration. If it will be exposed to brighter lighting it needs to be kept within a shaded rock area to cut back the lighting levels.

Tank Recommendations Placement of the Favia is consistently in the lower two-thirds of the aquarium with ample distance given from other coral species. A mature, well-fed live rock/reef environment is what is needed for the favia, along with some fish for organic matter production, and dissolved organics. As a general rule, caution should be used when mixing leather coral. Large polyp stony corals protect themselves by wielding their sweeper tentacles. Many of the leather coral species, by comparison produce and release toxic chemicals, called terpenes, into the water to stunt the growth of other species.

Diet and Feeding It is not necessary to feed, although they are capable of eating fairly large (by coral standards) meaty foods. The fact that they are biologically able to consume rather large, meaty meals, suggests to me that feeding should be strongly encouraged. However favia can be kept successfully in a reef tank without any feeding at all, as long as adequate lighting is provided, because their symbiotic zooxanthellae will sustain them. If you want to feed, they will eat mysis, fortified brine shrimp, rotifers, Cyclopeeze and other similarly sized meaty foods. Larger pieces than a typical mysis is not digestible, and although the animal "accepts" it, it will regurgitate it up later in the night.

Other Requirements Favia corals have a large coral skeleton and can use a lot of calcium so keep an eye on the levels to ensure that it has enough calcium for good growth. Having a higher than normal level of calcium in the aquarium will not help the coral grow any faster but will cause other problems like not being able to keep KH at the desired levels. We try to keep the calcium levels between 400ppm and 420ppm and KH around 8. Having a calcium reactor can really help in keeping a stable calcium level and will even help KH levels in the reef aquarium. As far as trace elements, doing regular water changes will help replace the trace elements that the War Coral may need for good growth.