Distichopora是这样一个美丽的动物,很遗憾我们圣ill haven’t cracked its captive care in home aquariums. Whether that’s due to this ‘coral’ not being a coral at all, or the fact that it’s non-photosynthetic probably has something to do with it.
Although the seem very coral-like,Distichoporabelong to a completely different order of the animal tree, the Hydrozoans which includes hydroids and the more familiarMilliporafire corals. However unlike the photosynthetic and fast-growing fire corals,Distichoporahas a near zero survival rate in captivity.
DistichoporaandStylaster‘Lace Corals’ are sometimes encountered in aquarium stores – but if the staff is willing to sell it to you, it’s a sure fire sign that you might want to find a new place to shop. The reason being that, as far as we know, no one has been able to keep these corals alive, even though the skeleton retains its color long after the zooids have gone (zooids are the hydrozoan equivalent of polyps).
It’s a shame we don’t know how to grow them becauseDistichoporaoccurs in some truly beautiful colors, a large sampling of which we got to see on recent dives in Papua New Guinea. In certain parts of the reef theDistichoporawas the dominant reef animal, in some places even crowding out the Acros in shallow water!
On this particular reef there were countlessDistichoporain a rainbow of colors, ranging from blue to yellow, some with a light mauve color that only became purple towards the tips.
As common asDistichoporawas on this particular reef, it really made me want to try and figure out what makes these corals tick and grow, because they would be stunning animals in the aquarium. We’ve already figured out the whole chemistry needs of real stony corals and other invertebrates, so if we could just figure out what lace corals eat, we’d be able to takeDistichoporaout of the category of Unseen Corals.
