Psammacora digitata - November COTM

Common Name: Psammacora
Origin: This coral originated from the Indian Ocean. It can be mostly found off of Malaysia and Indonesia.
Temperament: Although this coral would technically be classified as a LPS given its taxonomy, I have never seen it expose any tentacles. The growth pattern is similar to that of SPS as it grows vertically and not only strictly horizontally. Mine has not yet bothered any neighboring corals.
Reef parameters and recommended/desired levels:
Salinity/specific gravity: -1.025ppm or 35ppt
Temp: 78-82
PH: 8.1-8.3
Ammonia/NH3: 0
Nitrite/NO2: 0
Nitrate/NO3: 0
Phosphate/PO4: 0

Hardiness: I would rate this coral as medium as it has all the requirements of an SPS but has the hardiness of a beginner coral. It is fairly hardy as a friend of mine’s survived a tank crash where all SPS died but all LPS lived.

Flow: Any type of flow is acceptable as this coral is very flexible. Observations between different tanks with this coral shows that high flow may have a correlation to brighter color and lower flow may contribute to a darker color.

Feeding: Feeding is thought to be in large part due to zooxanthellae. There are no discernable polyps, only very small fuzzy extensions that resemble mini versions of feeding tentacles of a LPS. These mini tentacles/polyps thickly cover the whole entire coral (see picture above) and are very small, only a few millimeters in length. If the coral feeds on any type of organism it will be any excess zooxanthellae that it produces (probable because of the vibrant colors it produces) or bacteria pulled from the water column.

Lighting: Most lighting is acceptable (t5, MH, LED). Psammacora has proven that it can handle any amount of lighting as I know of a few people who keep it under 400w halides. Under bluer lighting the skeletal tissue is slightly darker and under whiter lighting the skeletal tissue is slightly lighter.
Frag difficulty: Fragging as a mature colony is much easier than as a small specimen. The coral takes on a branching formation similar to “pillars” as it matures which makes fragging very similar to that of an SPS.

Personal Observations: This coral is not encountered often in the hobby, however popularity is increasing. The colors range from green (most common), to orange, and to purple. All seem to possess a metallic sheen to them that is present under all types of lighting. Flow seems to possibly have a small effect on how much of the metallic coloration is displayed. The growth rate is fairly fast and just like SPS, is determined by Ca and Alk levels.

Psammacora digitata November 2010 Coral of the Month


Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Subkingdom: Radiata
Infrakingdom: Coelenterata
Phylum: Cnidaria
Subphylum: Anthozoa
Class: Anthozoa
Subclass: Zoantharia
Order: Scleractinia
Suborder: Fungiina
Family: Siderastreidae
Genus: Psammacora
Species Name: digitata
Scientific Name: Psammacora digitata

 

Excellent write up, very imformative.

Too bad the metallic sheen can not be caught on pictures.

Also interesting that it is considered a LPS, I wonder if that will change over time.

The rich green color make it a very attractive coral. I will be keeping my eye out for it.

Thank you for the write up.

 

Nice!

I think I just won a purple one this week in the Reef Empire auctions. It was tagged as an unknown.

Psammacora, yes?

 

excellent write up. suprising , considering its shape that its an lps. but nice that you defined its species\family genus regarding that. i will be on the look out for one of those also.

 

Great write up! i have a small frag and i have found that i can keep it almost anywhere in my tank and doesnt grow any faster or any slower

 

Awesome write up! Very informative.Great job Dingo. thank you :thumbs_up

 

Great write up

 

excellent write up Dingo

LPS - I would not have guessed just from looking at the image

Steve

 

Great write up and beautiful coral. Thanks for sharing!! I think one of these will be in my reef's future!

 

Thank you! the coral actually used to be considered an SPS a few years ago but recently it was defined taxonomically to truly be an LPS (weird i know lol)

But that does make it easier to care for and very interesting. Other common colors are purple and bright orange

My vote says purple psammacora! good luck with it

I know, very odd shape for LPS. Quite hardy also so IMO its worth a look into! thank you though