Home Large Polyp Stony Corals Our Tubastrea Coral Frags Online are Stunning Additions to Any Reef Tank

Our Tubastrea Coral Frags Online are Stunning Additions to Any Reef Tank

Turbinaria coral is a LPS coral species that exemplifies why the Greeks classified this and other corals species as anthozoans (anthos, “flower”, zoa, “animals”.) The polyps of this beautiful species resemble not only the blossoms of a flower but also evoke the dazzling shape and color of the midday sun. Unlike most coral species, LPS, SPS or otherwise, Tubastrea coral frags contain no symbiotic and photosynthetic zooxanthellae to feed the colony. Therefore, the health of sun coral frags is entirely dependent on the nutrition captured by the feeding tentacles on its polyps.

Tubastrea Coral Care Guide

Experience Level

Due to the somewhat tricky nature of getting each polyp enough nutrition to remain healthy, we don’t recommend our online Tubastrea coral frags to customers just getting started with reefkeeping. Other LPS species are far more forgiving and easy to care for while beginning coralheads build their confidence and expertise. That said, not all beginning coralheads are created equal. If you think that you’re up to the challenge and have a cycled system with stable water chemistry, consider adding a sun coral frag to your order and place it in a shallow quarantine system, where it will be easier to feed.

Optimal Water Quality Parameters

Temperature: 72-78F, 22-25C
pH: 8.1-8.3
dKH: 7-11 (125-200ppm CaCO3 equivalent)
Calcium: 375-450ppm
Magnesium: 1275-1350ppm
Salinity: 33ppt
Ammonia (NH3): less than 0.1ppm
Nitrite (NO2): less than 0.2ppm
Nitrate (NO3): less than 0.2ppm
Phosphates (PO4): less than 0.03ppm

Lighting Preferences:

Since your Tubastrea frag is azooxathellate, you won’t have to concern yourself with getting the lighting just right. Choose a spot on the substrate of your display that is easy to reach (and feed) and let it throw some vivid oranges and yellows in an otherwise darker portion of your display.

Water Flow Preferences:

Tubastrea colonies prefer water flows of medium intensity and on up from there. Select a spot with shifting, laminar flows that fully animate each polyp and buffet the feeding tentacles around the oral disc. The number of tentacles on each polyp indicates just how dependent this coral is on the zooplankton borne on the current.

Placement Considerations:

Tubastrea is not an aggressive coral species at all but its polyps can be damaged by aggressive neighbors, so allow plenty of space around the colony so it can grow without getting damaged by the stings and sweeper tentacles of other species.

Feeding Considerations:

As we mentioned, this coral is entirely dependent on nutrition caught by the tentacles on its polyps. You’ll have to take extra care to ensure that each polyp is fed individually with appropriately sized foods that allow each polyp to import, digest and export food easily but great care must be taken not to feed them before their last meal is exported as waste. Otherwise, you could end up with decomposing food in the cavity of the polyp, leading to poor health and bacterial infections. The best polyp extension usually occurs at night but some reefers claim that their have “trained” their Tubastrea colonies to open up during the day when it is more convenient for their schedule. Your mileage may vary on this.

Dazzling Online Tubastrea Coral Frags from CoralFrags.com

If you order a sun coral or any other species of coral frag from us, we want you to know that we give each customer the best running start on healthy corals that we can by maintaining our corals in optimal water chemistry. We also hold our frags in life support systems that we designed and built ourselves that are optimized specifically for coral health and growth. We can’t be successful unless we do everything we can to help our customers be successful reefkeepers and that’s how we’ve built our business: one satisfied customer at a time. Please browse our selection of Tubastrea frags and select one or a bunch(!) with confidence. Thanks for looking!

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