These corals are capable of capturing Artemia ( brine shrimp), Mysis shrimp, and other zooplankton. (Not a bad deal, eh? Seems like an arrangement Homer Simpson would be proud of)Įven though they derive their nutrition from photosynthesis via the symbiotic relationship with zooxanthellae, it’s important to note that the Ricordea ARE animals. This is thought to provide the mushroom coral with the majority of its nutrition. The single-celled zooxanthellae are responsible for the photosynthetic operations, but they gladly share their sugar (glucose) in exchange for their home. Ricordea corals are considered photosynthetic because of the symbiotic zooxanthellae living within their body tissues. Without sufficient space? You may see your Ricordea take over everything. With no need to pull extra calcium from the water, those bubble tentacles have an advantage over your LPS and SPS corals. And have some consideration for your stony and soft corals at the same time. Give your mushroom corals space to grow – without fighting for the room to do so. However, you don’t want to encourage coral warfare throughout your aquarium. You’ll find stinging tentacles around the oral disk that work nicely as an aggressive deterrent. It doesn’t mean they CAN’T defend themselves – they can. Corallimorphs share a likeness and family with stony corals, but they lack sweeper tentacles. You can’t neglect thinking about room to grow and multiply – without the risk of bumping into neighboring corals. As long as there’s a suitable anchor point nearby, your coral will reattach itself. (You can always increase the dial incrementally) If the worst happens and you notice your coral ending up detached, move it to a lower current area in your tank. You want to err on the moderate side and monitor the extension of those bubble tentacles.

(Or, worse, you may end up with colorful corallimorphs blowing all over your aquarium) These corals lack a stony skeleton, making them more delicate. High flow strains the tentacles, and they won’t extend as a preservation technique. Ricordea require low-moderate water flow. yuma gets the lion’s share of pigments and shading. However, those tropical Pacific waters mean the R. These corals come in astounding palettes (why else would hobbyists love them so much?). Finally, the colors available can supply a hint. yuma counterpart? Color spreads out at random. florida allows distributes in distinctive rings. As you move out from that center reference point, focus on the individual tentacles. In comparison, R.a yuma clusters tentacles tight to the mouth. florida keeps the oral disc separate from the clusters of tentacles.

To start, you need to look at the arrangement of the tentacles around the oral disk. The confusion crops up in the fish store) Luckily, you can look for three areas to tell the two apart: (Obviously, when you’re diving or snorkeling in their ranges, that isn’t a problem. If you don’t see the two species next to one another, it’s easy to get them confused. But in the tropical regions? That oral disc perches on a shorter base, with equally squat tentacles. In the temperature zone, you’ll see long, dramatic columns. You can find members of the group throughout the ocean – mostly due to their habit of taking over reefs in a sweeping “carpet.” The temperature of the water determines the overall shape the corallimorph will take. Ricordea belong to a particular group known as corallimorphs. yuma is more challenging to maintain than R.

Water Quality: Standard reef tank water parameters.

Aggression Level: Semi-aggressive Don’t let it touch or crowd neighboring corals.

Scientific Names: Ricordea florida and Ricordea yuma.

Common Names: Ricordea mushroom, Flower mushroom.

Reef rainbow recordia mushroom