Orange Montipora Digitata Coral – Aquacultured, ORA™ (Montipora digitata)

• Date Added: 01/08/2010
• Tank: Cardiff
• Status: Inactive 12/1/2011
• Purchased at: Coral Corral
• Cost: $30.00
• Coloration: Orange polyps with lighter growth tips and turns to more pink color in high intensity lights
• Lighting: 250w MH 14000K Phoenix

General Information

• Description: Digitata corals will generally grow upright branches, but this growth is highly variable depending on its environmental conditions.
• Common Names: Velvet Branch, Velvet Finger Coral
• Light and Flow: For optimum coloration, it should be given a medium to high light levels such as T5 or metal halide lighting combined with medium to strong intermittent water current within the aquarium.
• Supplements: It will require maintaining stable levels of calcium, magnesium, pH, alkalinity, and other trace elements as you would with other types of SPS corals. It is essential for SPS health to keep nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates near undetectable levels.
• Feeding: While it does not require additional food to maintain its health, it will feed on micro-plankton and foods designed for filter feeding invertebrates.
• More Information: ORA has taken the time to collect, identify and culture some of the fastest growing and finest strains of various stony coral genera. They culture the most colorful examples of these genera, and have developed some of the most popular corals ever available. The advanced quality control methods used at ORA ensure only problem-free specimens are sold.

  ORA corals are grown in their greenhouse culture facilities in Florida and the Marshall Islands. They are under shaded sunlight, complemented by 250 Watt, 10,000K double-ended HQI Metal Halide lights. They are fully ready to be acclimated to aquarium light, water and flow conditions. They are grown in natural seawater so proper acclimation to artificial saltwater is recommended.

  ORA frags grown on plastic plugs can be mounted in a number of different ways. Many hobbyists just place the plug between pieces of live rock. Another method is to drill a 1/2″ diameter hole in the rock and simply place the plug in the hole. This method can be used to mount the coral at different angles. Some aquarists simply snap the coral off the plug and use epoxy to mount it to the rock.

References

Riddle, Dana. “Montipora digitata: A Stony Coral for All Hobbyists.” Advanced Aquarist’s Online Magazine. Jan 2008. Reefs.org Publication. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2008/1/aafeature2. Accessed 08 Jan 2010.