• Date Added: 02-05-2012
• Tank: Cardiff 24 gallon
• Status: Active
• Purchased at: Coral Corral
• Cost: $20.00
• Coloration: Blue Green with neon green eye
• Lighting and Camera:
  • 250w MH 14000K Phoenix
  • Canon Rebel Xi
  • Aperture photo software editing used trying to adjust to actual viewable color

General Information

• Description: Ricordea florida mushroom corals are heralded for their bright and highly variable coloration that often change within the aquarium depending on their environment. It is easily identified by its raised dots across its surface.
• Light & Flow: They adapt to wide variety of lighting but care should be given to placing under metal halide lighting. They prefer low flow areas for best inflation or tissue loss.
• Supplements: It will require maintaining stable levels of calcium, magnesium, pH, alkalinity, and other trace elements as you would with other types of corals.
• Feeding: All mushroom corals included are photosynthetic and a majority of their nutritional requirements are obtained from the symbiotic algae zooxanthellae hosted within each coral. They also eat plankton and smaller invertebrates, such as crustaceans and brine or mysis shrimp.
• Care: Growth pattern can lead to encroachment on its neighbors. Ricordea appears to be able to effectively kill other corals that it comes into contact. Since they are slow growing corals, this does not generally create a large issue.
• Range: Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean
• Other Names: Mushroom Coral
• Other Colors: Various