coral of the week { millepora } fire coral

[shred5]

Every week I will post a new coral and I want you to post everything you know about this particular coral. Everything from common names, how hardy they are, water temp, water flow, lighting, water parameters, fraging, spawning, related corals, scientific names, feeding, best ways to ship, etc. Post your pictures for identification. Please tell us about your system so others can duplicate your success. Also email me for request on which corals you would like to see in this section. This week is the family millepora (fire corals) requested by Clyde. I decided to do the hole family of millepora at once.
Dave

 

[Brad Ward]

I'll start off with a picture from Larry Jackson's tank.

Class Hydrozoa
Order Milleporina
Family Milleporidae
Genus Millepora

This colony started off as a frag and took over his favorite piece of rock within a year. This coral grows over anything and everything. It is called fire coral in diving circles for a good reason. It has a very potent sting and if you touch this coral with a softer part of your body like the inside of your thigh or forearm, you will know it! I have seen entire sea fans encrusted with this coral and coke bottles as well. It is found in areas of strong currents or water motion. The skeleton is brittle and breaks quite easily, but some form thick plates when subjected to heavy wave action.

Moderate light sources such as we can provide this coral in our tanks usually produces a tanish coloration. Full sunlight in shallow waters however, can produce bright yellow coloration. They are hermatypic and can become encrusting, plating, columar or arborescent.

 

[Smthnfishy]

Fire coral, not in my tank. They grow to quick and BURN everything in there paths. Plus they are really boring to look at, plain looking I should say. Just my thought on fire corals. Acropora millepora thats another story.
Erik

 

[Clyde]

the reason why I asked for this specific coral is I m seeing this coral for sale more and more often at the LFS around here, or is offered for trades.

Would be good to get info on this coral - even tho its not popular - but good info for those who are offered this in trade, or see at LFS and want info on it.

Fragging this specific coral is a neat sight, once the coral is fragged - usually by breaking a small piece - the area where it has been fragged usually puts up a bunch of bubbles, like fizzing for a while.

I had a large Fire coral, that I traded to David Grigor (I cannot recall size, but it was rather nice and TALL about 8 to 10 inches, but not encrusting) Tanish in color - I dont know the status of the coral I traded to him, it did not sting me often, but when I cleaned the tank it did - grr!!

I would only place this coral in a very well established tank, so you dont have to bump into it if you have a lot of tank cleaning to do (first 6 - 7 months - alage, ditoms etc) to lessen your possiblity in getting in contact with this coral.

yes, I agree - A. Millepora is very VERY neat.

 

[Northern Reef]

No experience with the coral, shred, just wanted to say thanks for starting the thread.

 

[shred5]

Northern Reef
Hey no problem. JohnL Gave me the go ahead.

Also if anyone missed last weeks coral of the week { pocillopora damicornis } here is the link to it. http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=10285

Thanks for the Great posts.

Dave

 

[shred5]

I see them scuba diving alot and I was wondering what their sting felt like? Is it painfull. Its one of those thing you want to touch just to see what it feels like but you are scared to do it.

Dave

 

[smpolyp]

They grow they burn and they have the most delicate tenticles I have ever seen.

 

[beanbrrd]

yes! nice choice. ive got a millepora (came on a good piece of live rock)- looks like the same as the picture posted except mine hasnt sent out any columnar branches yet, just elongated bumps. it's yellow-tipped & golden colored. a non-reefer friend (correct term for the commonfolk?) said it looked like chunky peanut butter spread onto a rock. i place it fairly high in the tank (385watts VHO) with lots of current - H2O movement helps shed its poo, which is always followed by tentacle/stinger expansion. with stingers at full mast it looks fuzzy & soft, which is probly why divers feel compelled to touch it. OW! ive been stung many times while cleaning/reaching - but avoiding this coral w/my hands is well worth seeing the bx & progression of such an awesome specimen. shred5, the sting feels just like a burn, like being grazed by a lit cigarette, & you feel it immediately. meat tenderizer, for one, kills the stingers - if you leave them in untreated then they will continue to sting/burn esp when itched. milleporas do grow fast, but that's why i put rock chips in its path - instant self-made frags - i grew some onto the tip of a staghorn skeleton which made a cool psuedo-branching millepora. thanks for the thread, shred - good idea. ~robin

 

[Niven]

Will this coral encrust glass? The LR i have from Gulf-view had a brownish encrusting 'thing' on it. When I put it up against the back of my tank, it covered about a 12" by 6" section. I kind of thought it was Millepora, but was never too sure. It's a tan color with little hairs growing out of it. There aren't any shapes to it, just flat. And I haven't gotten stung yet, but it is on the back of the tank. Not the coolest thing yet, but different.
HTH,
Niven

Shred,
You coming this weekend?

 

[shred5]

Niven.
I will email you tomorrow about this weekend if thats ok.

Gulf rock can have fire coral on it and that sounds like the encrusting form you have. I believe Fire coral is actually a hydroid.

Dave

 

[Pinkskunk]

Excellent Topic!

Thanks to this post and the previous post, i will end up with a PINK pocilopora sometime next week.

 

[Pinkskunk]

my question....... can you do yellow Porites sometime?

thanks.

 

[David Grigor]

Clyde,

Sorry to report that it never made it.

A week after I recieved the frag I went out of town. During that time it turned white. I left it in the tank another 6 weeks or so because had no way of knowing it is was truly dead of not since doesn't show any type of polyps. Finally gave up when it became one big algae stick......

 

[Clyde]

no worries.. I m going to DC again this weekend - will see the guy who gave me that, I might ask for a frag or two, I ll keep you updated.

will see a guy who has a LOT too -

yeah, no visable polyps, yet packs a whallop on your arm.

 

[FishDaddy]

I have one rock that's about half covered with encrusting Millepora. Like Niven's, it has spread to the glass next to the rock. I don't particularly like it, plumb grungy looking, and am considering taking that rock out and soaking it in freshwater for a while to get rid of it. I hate to do that because I don't want to kill off the LR. Any other suggestions?
Dick

 

[grizz]

trade it, or trade it into your lfs.. it is not fair to the coral that just because you dont like it you can kill it.. dont forget, they are living too!!

 

[shred5]

Pinkskunk yes I can do yellow porites in three weeks. The next two weeks have been requested already.

dave