Tree Coral

About

Tree coral (Dendrophyllia robusta) is a hard coral from the Indo-West Pacific that breaks one of the most common assumptions in reef keeping. It has no symbiotic algae inside its tissues, which means it gets none of its energy from light. That single fact shapes everything about how you keep it. Rather than positioning it under bright reef lighting, you can tuck it into shaded overhangs, caves, or lower reaches of the tank where other stony corals would simply fade out. The branching, tree-like skeleton is where the common name comes from, and fully extended polyps give it a lush, bushy appearance that looks nothing like the typical SPS or LPS corals most reefers are used to. Because it cannot photosynthesize, feeding is not optional. This coral depends entirely on direct food input, whether that means broadcast feeding, target feeding, or both. That feeding requirement puts it in intermediate territory; it is not especially difficult to keep, but it will slowly decline in the hands of a keeper who is not attentive to its nutritional needs. Flow should be moderate. Enough to carry food to the polyps and remove waste without battering the colony.