Cabbage Leather Coral

The Cabbage Leather Coral, also referred to as the Flat Leather Coral, Flower Leather Coral, or Carpet Coral, is a hardy soft coral great for the dedicated new or novice reef aquarium hobbyists. As its common name suggests, the Cabbage Leather Coral demonstrates a flat, lobed growth habit that resembles the ruffled leaves of a cabbage. Once established, the Cabbage Leather Coral grows vigorously making it a great choice for softening rockwork or filling empty reef aquarium landscapes with its striking foliar appearance. Cabbage Leather Corals are typically cream or brown in coloration, so this pink color variety offers a fantastic color boost to your reef aquarium.

The Cabbage Leather Coral has a semi-aggressive temperament so be sure to provide adequate space between other corals. The Cabbage Leather Coral produces chemical compounds that can be detrimental to hard corals. As such, care should be taken when introducing it into a mixed reef aquarium, taking into account its placement and size relative to the size of the aquarium. Routine water changes and the use of chemical filter media is often recommended in systems housing Sinularia corals to help prevent buildup of these chemical compounds.

The Cabbage Leather Coral can thrive under a variety of lighting conditions achieved by T-5 fluorescent, powerful LED, or the more intense metal halide light fixtures. While not as demanding as small polyp stony (SPS) corals, it is still imperative to maintain high water quality for the Cabbage Leather Coral ensuring proper pH, alkalinity and calcium levels, while keeping phosphate and nitrate levels as close to zero as possible. Under ideal conditions the Cabbage Leather Coral can grow rapidly, allowing dedicated or experienced reef hobbyists to propagate fragments or broken pieces of these corals and grow them into new colonies.

Along with proper lighting and water quality, the Cabbage Leather Coral will thrive when provided medium to strong, intermittent water flow within the aquarium. This can be easily achieved with the addition of powerheads, wavemakers, or water circulation pumps.

Though the Cabbage Leather Coral hosts symbiotic photosynthetic zooxanthellae algae to help satisfy a major portion of its nutritional requirements, the Cabbage Leather Coral will benefit from supplemental weekly feedings of micro-plankton and other foods designed for filter-feeding invertebrates especially when housed in reef aquariums that do not contain fishes. For continued good health, the Cabbage Leather Coral will also require the addition of iodine, strontium, and other trace elements to the water.

The Cabbage Leather Coral is mounted to a natural "rock-like" plug that can be placed easily and securely in or between rockwork in the reef aquarium.

Approximate Purchase Size: Small: 1-1/2" to 2-1/4"; Medium: 2-1/2" to 4-1/4"; Large: 4-1/4" to 7"