Kenya Tree Madness

So my local lfs gave me a free purple kenya tree coral. After researching online about them I was told that these are absolutely terrible and they reproduce like crazy. Is this true. I want to hear your experiences with these. If I see more trees should I just get rid of them completely??!!??

 

I had one and it was super annoying! Every morning I would need to go into my tank and pluck out new "babies" the coral would release.

I am still finding little branches popping up months later.


Heres mine from about 15 months ago.

 

Should I get rid of mine? Should I sell it at my lfs?

 

nah... just watch it mine reproduced but you can sell on CL for 5 bucks a frag LOL

 

Just got rid of mine, it was huge, did very well, but I could not take it anymore. Everyday I was pulling out 3-4 buds. Its been out for a week and I couldn't be happier.

 

Keep it. Just chop it down to an inch or so and sell that whenever it gets too big. It will grow back smaller. If you control the size of it, it won't drop babies so often. They provide a nice branching movement.

If you've got a large aquarium and can't get to them to control them, then they can become a nuisance.

Most beginner type coral is like that - xenia, gsp, some polyps. Grows and spreads fast without any effort.

 

Great information

 

My LFS gave me 8 stalks of it for free lol. I hope my reef tank doesn't become a Kenya Tree tank :-/ How fast do these guys grow and bud? The pieces I got were about 1".

 

Would like to know as well.

 

I just ridded my tank a couple months ago of it,got sick of it spreading everywhere.But I just read an interesting article the other day that I never knew.

According to the article,kenya tree is considered a beginers coral because of it's hardiness and can adapt to less than perfect water or lighting.Come to find out,kenya is a very high light demanding coral.

The dropping of branches is a survival tactic thats used because the coral is in search of better conditions,usually lighting being the culprit as they like some nutrients in the water.Kenya can grow very large and not be a problem with spreading in the right conditions....

So,it's actually a little more "finicky/demanding" of a coral than many of us think they are.It's also a very aggressive coral with it's chemical warfare,i've personally had it kill off gsp,xenia and button polyps and had it irritate many others as well as keeping zoas from opening when too close.