Palythoa

Palythoa
Palythoa
Species	Palythoa
Difficulty	Easy
Required Lighting	Low/Med/High 100 to 500 PAR
Temp.	22-25C (72-78F)
Placement	Anywhere
Coloration	Various
pH	8.1-8.4
Specific Gravity	1.023-1.025
Water Hardness	9-19dh
Temperament	Mildly-Aggressive
Water Flow	Moderate to Low

Alternative names

Button Polyps, Palys.

Tank compatibility

May sting neighbouring coral. Realeases toxic poision if cut.

Diet

Palythoa contain a symbiotic algae called zooxanthellae and are therefore photosynthetic. They will benefit, however, from occasional feedings of microplankton.

Feeding regime

Only occasional feedings are necessary as they are photosynthetic corals.

Environment Specifics

Is sold as a "frag" that is easily placed into the tank. Provide it with space to grow as it may sting neighbouring coral. Their placement should be planned carefully. Needs a moderate flow to move water with poisons away to be cleaned out of the water. Palythoa or "Palys" will live under a varity of lighting conditions, however, for their colors to remain bright and vivid they should be placed in a region of 200 to 400 PAR.

Behaviour

Poisonous, ALWAYS wear gloves when handling this coral. Poly-toxin is one of the most poisionus substances known to man, not all palys have it but you don't want to find out the hard way.

Identification

An attractive and popular colourful colony coral. They are available in a variety of colours including green, tan, pink, brown and orange. Palys are a close reletive to Zoanthus, and thus are often mistaken for them. Two things differentiate them from one another. One being that Palys will take up peices of sand and substrate into their base to make their mat tougher, and two their oral disk is generally larger with a small slit in the center.