Home Small Polyp Stony Corals You Definitely have Space on Your Reef for Our Online Cyphastrea Coral Frags

You Definitely have Space on Your Reef for Our Online Cyphastrea Coral Frags

Cyphastrea is a very pretty encrusting SPS coral species that can turn a surface of drab live rock into a glittering jewel of living color in your reef display over time. While most Cyphastrea colonies have a blue base with red polyps, often called a meteor shower Cyphastrea or meteor Cyph, it can also be found in other color configurations that are also quite lovely and pleasing to the eye (and the discriminating coralhead!) Cyphastrea is a zooxanthellate species, meaning that it has symbiotic algae living in its tissue providing essential nutrition for the host coral. However, this is a SPS species that does best on the bottom of a reef display or similar places with lower or indirect lighting.

Cyphastrea Coral Care Guide

Experience Level

While we don’t recommend our Cyphastrea frags for reefers just getting started with corals, this SPS species is fairly easy to care for. Just make sure that your system has been cycled for a few months with stable water quality parameters and you should be ready to add a frag or three of this pretty species.

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: 35ppt
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:

After acclimation, choose a location someplace on the bottom of your reef display, although a spot in the middle with indirect lighting can work well also. When in doubt, initially choose a spot with lower lighting, as lighting that is too intense will stress and kill the zooxanthellae and the host coral, as well. After it has fully acclimated to your system, then start experimenting with other locations.

Water Flow Preferences:

Cyphastrea prefers medium to slightly stronger laminar flows. After a couple of weeks of acclimation, monitor the polyp extension closely to determine whether or not the flow is agreeable to your new frag and make modest adjustments accordingly. Just make sure to allow enough time between adjustments before making another or you’ll never development a reefer’s instincts for choosing flow and lighting that is “just right.”

Placement Considerations:

Cyphastrea is a pretty aggressive SPS species and will sting and kill nearby corals, clams and other sessile invertebrates. If the colony is happy, it can encrust surrounding rockwork surprisingly quickly, so plan accordingly when placing your frags and keep a close eye on neighboring inverts for signs of injuries from stings.

Feeding Considerations:

It’s not necessary to feed Cyphastrea but it will benefit from the occasional feeding of Artemia nauplii, rotifers, and similar coral foods. Just take care not to overdo it, as too many nutrients can trash your water quality and stress and kill your most prized corals!

Beautiful Cyphastrea Coral Frags Online from CoralFrags.com

Pretty much every coralhead has a niche or two somewhere in their reef display for a Cyphastrea frag or three. In time, your frags can grow into thriving colonies encrusting whole rocks and reaching out to colonize nearby rockwork, adding some pretty spectacular eye candy for your reefing friends to drool over. If you can’t resist adding one or more of our Cyphastrea frags to your cart, we totally understand. We love this coral, too. Thanks for looking!

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