Tube Coral, Yellow

Daisy-bright beauty, gently swaying polyps, unique feeding habits and low light requirements make the Tubastrea Yellow Tube Coral a perfect LPS coral for the deepest zones of your reef aquarium.

Also known as the Sun Polyp Coral, or Yellow Cup Coral, its genus name, Tubastraea, is derived from the Latin words tubus (tube) and astron (star), describing its skeletal structure which is tubular, with stars at the tip of each tube.

In the wild, the Tubastrea Yellow Tube Coral is often found on reef ledges or steep reef slopes. It is a colonial coral with a sunny yellow coloration when open. The center skeleton is round with the tubes branching off in all directions.

The Yellow Tube Coral can be quite fragile and must be handled with extra care. When placing in the aquarium, it must be picked up by its underside. It should have moderate to high water current combined with low lighting levels. It will also benefit from the addition of calcium, strontium, and other trace elements to the water. It is a hardy coral for the reef aquarium, but is classified as moderate because of the special care that it requires.

It is one of the few corals that does not contain a symbiotic algae, so it must be fed vitamin-enriched brine shrimp or micro-plankton from an eye dropper directly to each one of its polyps. It will usually only expand its polyps in the evening or when it is hungry.

Approximate Purchase Size: Small 2" to 3"; Medium 3" to 4"; Large 4" to 5"