The Aquacultured Pearl Bubble Coral Plerogyra sinuosa ia popularly known as the Pearl Coral or Pearl Bubble Cora. The Plerogyra genus are known as grape corals or bladder corals. In the wild, they form flat round colony clusters, looking much like clusters of 'grapes' hence the common name. The 'grapes' are water filled vesicles (bubbles) that will actually inflate or deflate, depending on the light available. All the Bubble Corals have lightweight skeletons consisting of short thick stalks topped with corallites. This skeleton is hidden by the oval water filled bubbles. These bubbles only come out during the day. At night they retract, making way for their tapered feeding tentacles to emerge and gather prey.
Difficulty The Pearl Bubble Coral can be moderate to easy to care for. The "bubbles" can tear so be careful when handling. Provide gentle water movement and low to moderate light, and this is an easy LPS with few demands.
Aggressiveness Plerogyra corals can be aggressive if touching other corals and should be positioned away from all other corals. It needs to be at least 6" away since it sends out sweeper tentacles at night. Their sweeper tentacles can punch a powerful sting to other corals as well as humans.
Water-flow
It prefers gentle water flow.
Lighting
It prefers low lighting levels (PAR 25 to 50). They enjoy, but do not require, moderate lighting (PAR 75 to 150). But first a word of caution, to be kept under stronger lighting, they will need to be acclimated over a period of 4 to 6 weeks. T5's, Metal Halides, or LED's can all grow fungia plate corals when the proper PAR levels are provided. We recommend a 14-20K color spectrum for best coloration.
Tank Recommendations
A well-feed live rock/reef environment is what is needed for your bubble Coral, along with some fish for organic matter production. A mature tank is recommended.
Diet and Feeding
We recommend feeding cyclopeeze, micro-plankton, brine shrimp, frozen mysis and other similar sized meaty foods. Try to not feed large pieces since it makes it difficult for the animal to digest such foods and often results in them regurgitating late at night. When this happens, they are not benefiting from the feeding and it can lead to eventual starvation. These guys are hungry and need to be fed daily for good results.
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