Branched Cup Coral

About

Branched Cup Coral (Blastomussa wellsi) is a chunky, fleshy large-polyp stony coral from the Indo-West Pacific, ranging from the Red Sea across to Polynesia and from Japan down to Australia. In the wild it gravitates toward the quieter, more shaded corners of reef environments, lower slopes sheltered from wave action, and even murky, turbid water, which tells you a lot about what it expects in your tank. The individual corallites are fairly substantial, typically around a centimeter or more across, and during the day the fleshy mantles expand and spread outward, often merging with neighboring polyps to form a continuous puffy surface that hides the underlying skeleton entirely. Coloration runs toward dark grey as a baseline, but red and green morphs show up regularly, and the oral discs often contrast with the mantle in shades of green, red, or grey. In the aquarium Blastomussa wellsi is a reasonable choice for reef keepers with some experience. It appreciates gentle flow and doesn't demand intense lighting, which actually makes it a practical option for lower-light areas of a display where more demanding corals would sulk. Aggression is minimal, though like most LPS corals it can extend sweeper tentacles at night, so give neighboring corals a little breathing room.