Bill's coral

My brother, Bill, is a cool dude. One of his passions is aquatic life. Right now he has coral growing in his tanks at home. A few days ago he sent these pictures so we could see them up close! So very, very cool. Makes me want to have a few tanks myself!


Bill wrote to us, "This is a purple branching coral. I've had it for a couple of weeks. When I bought it the polyps were all dark brown. This was because of the light level at the aquarium store. Under moderate light these corals turn brown because of the algae living inside them (symbiosis). The algae are brown, and they proliferate inside the corals under lower light intensities. But my aquarium has a higher light intensity than the fish store, and the polyps are slowly turning purple. You can see the polyps pretty well, even though they are really small. Eventually they may all be purple."



Bill's words : "Try these on for size, too. One shows a bunch of pink and red feather duster worms spreading their tentacles out to catch food (and breathe). The feather dusters just appeared on the rocks about two weeks after I bought them, and I've done nothing for them- they just grow and eat whatever comes their way (there are lots and lots of tiny critters- copepods and stuff in the tank which have also grown there naturally.) See if you can find the featherdusters! The other shows an emerald crab picking algae off the rocks around some mushroom anemones."



Thanks, Bro! Keep them coming...we truly enjoy these. I have just added a coral tank to my wish list for Santa!