So they said it was a Brain Coral... is it?

[Siberwulf]

The LFS said this was a brain coral, but the length of the sweepers at night is pretty intense. It's about 1" across, but the sweepers (not pictured) are approximately 5" long.

 

[sunken3]

i am no coral expert, but the brains i am used to are maze/brain corals.. i suppose that could be an open brain (trachy)..

 

[MaxTremors]

‘Brain coral’ is such a generic and ambiguous term that it’s essentially meaningless. A ‘brain coral’ could be literally hundreds of different species in dozens of different genus/families of corals. Your coral is a Favia, which is often referred to as a ‘brain coral’. They can have long sweepers and can be pretty aggressive (one of the most common Favias in the hobby is called a ‘war coral’.

 

[Siberwulf]

‘Brain coral’ is such a generic and ambiguous term that it’s essentially meaningless. A ‘brain coral’ could be literally hundreds of different species in dozens of different genus/families of corals. Your coral is a Favia, which is often referred to as a ‘brain coral’. They can have long sweepers and can be pretty aggressive (one of the most common Favias in the hobby is called a ‘war coral’.

Well crap.

 

[Siberwulf]

Ok, now that I've slept on it...what do folks usually do with these? I'm tempted to return it to the LFS, not asking for a refund. I don't want future corals to have to deal with this, sooooo how do others keep these in a tank and not have them take everything else out?

 

[DrZoidburg]

Keep it you might like it in the end. Just give it a space between others.

 

[Siberwulf]

Keep it you might like it in the end. Just give it a space between others.

I know this is probably a "depends" answer, but how much space? He seems to be able to extend roughly 5x his size, which if I let him take over this rock..will be like half the tank.

 

[DrZoidburg]

In that case may be not a good idea if its half the tank. I would say 10 inches would be really safe.

 

[GHOSTLY]

Looks like favia! Mine has 2cm sweepers that look like acan sweepers. They are very aggressive

 

[ChaosAquaculture]

I wouldnt call that a brain coral. It looks and acts like a favia. - kali