Care Tips for Clove Polyps

Clove polyps are a type of soft coral that can be find in the ocean. That is to say, their polyp segments are all multiples of eight. Unlike stony corals, which come in multiples of six. Stony corals, on the other hand, are corals that grow calcium carbonate skeletons for the purposes of this pastime. Soft corals, on the other hand, do not.

There are a few grey area corals that don’t fit cleanly into the skeleton bucket slash bucket with no skeleton. A pipe organ coral is one such specimen. It’s a soft coral called Octocorallia that has a red calcium carbonate skeleton.

Clove polyps do not have the same visible skeleton as pipe organ corals. They do, however, generate a network of stolons from which their polyps grow.

It’s easy to see why corals are classified based on the number of polyp segments. And not how stony or soft a coral is, because there are many degrees of stoniness and softness. Moving on, I’d like to discuss their rate of growth. The issue I have with this coral is the rate of growth of the ones. The majority of the time, what we see is dissatisfyingly slow. It has the flowery, airy appearance of fast-growing soft corals. Cloves, on the other hand, are not like Xenia or Anthelia, which have explosive, near-infestation-level growth rates.

By splitting a bunch of stolons and attaching them down to a fresh substrate, they are easy to proliferate. But it takes a lot of patience to wait for them to mature from there. To cut a long tale short, in order to create a sustainable culture, I would have to devote a lot of room to them. Cloves come in a variety of species, as I said at the start of this article. And it’s no surprise that this “slow growth” designation has one major exception. There is a polyp known as “Blue Clove” that is rapidly expanding.

As a de facto replacement for coralline algae, I let them cover every portion of the rock. I’m always concerned about coral aggression, but it didn’t appear to be an issue in his tank. Because this tank is dominated by Acropora, which lacks motion, the outcome is a fairly fascinating effect. However, behind all of these massive SPS colonies, the clove polyps on the rock generate a gentle movement.

Let’s talk about some practical care advice now that we’ve covered some background material.

In terms of water flow, I prefer to give these polyps a lot of it. Strong Flow has two key advantages. It blows the polyps about in a nice manner, for starters. Clove polyps are an excellent option for swaying in the currents, which is something that many reef hobbyists search for. Second, the increased flow aids in keeping the colony clean.

The coral’s base is a network of stolons that, if allowed to settle, can collect waste. It’s critical to keep trash from accumulating at the base of the cloves. Otherwise, the coral may succumb to the stress and die.

When it comes to feeding, we don’t spend a lot of time spot feeding this coral. Clove polyps are photosynthetic, thus the lighting will provide them with the majority of their sustenance. They are not a coral that requires a lot of light.

They can endure light in the 50 PAR range, and they may possibly be able to tolerate higher light levels. As long as they are gradually acclimatized to the increased light intensities. If you wish to feed these corals on a regular basis, I recommend using the cloudy supernate from thawing meaty frozen foods like krill, mysis, or rotifers.

I’ve also used a combination of commercially supplied motorized zooplankton to feed these corals. Again, I don’t go to great lengths to feed clove polyps. However, it’s possible that more food would help these corals thrive. It’s critical not to overfeed with this or any other feeding regimen. Because causing a nutrient surplus is significantly more dangerous than the coral becoming hungry.

So, what is the purpose of this coral? Clove polyps are a versatile addition to a variety of aquariums.

They could be useful in smaller aquariums that are looking for a coral that isn’t too antagonistic to its neighbors and won’t overtake the tank in a month. On the other hand, the blue clove variant of this coral, which is abundant, might be used to make a gorgeous blue background for your other corals. Depending on what they want to achieve, I could see this coral working for both novices and experts in the field.

That concludes my Clove Polyps care advice. So, what are your thoughts? Can you think of any additional applications for clove polyps in a reef tank?