[untamed]

Originally Posted by lastlight

What's the orange covering across that one big round boulder? Is it some sort of encrusting coral or what?

There are two orange encrusting corals on that front rock. The top is some sort of monti(?) that flouresces beautifully. The sides are a fire coral that is native to Florida where the LD came from.

The fire coral is spreading rapidly around the entire tank...even up the back wall. Fortunately, it has no defense against any acro that wants space, so the rest of the coral holds it at bay.

Unfortunately, the gorgonians do not have any defense against the fire coral and one of my gorgs became completely overgrown by it. This seems like the natural behaviour of the fire coral as both the gorg and the fire coral come from the same ecosystem.

The orange encrusting monti is actually doing a service by surrounding that patch of gorgs, preventing the fire coral from reaching them. If not for that good fortune, I would have lost all those gorgonians to the fire coral long ago. The monti is also trying to grow up the gorgonians, but is doing so at a MUCH slower rate. The fire coral can fully encrust a 6" gorgonian in less than one week. It looks like it will take the monti years to accomplish that.



If you aren't a diver, I will add that fire coral is so named because you don't want to touch it! It has zapped me a few times, but it is only mildly painful.