Thistle coral or kenya tree?

[DeanoL]

Hi,

I was sold this coral as a thistle coral....when i bought it, it was quite small.

It has grown fairly quickly and is quite large now.

I'm thinking it might be a kenya tree?!?!?

Can anyone confirm it for me?

Also - is it possible to trim it? Or cut it in half? It's just taking up so much space and shading a lot of corals underneath.....how do i go about doing that?!?!

Thanks

 

[jdpeters]

I can’t identify but nice piece! It’s a monster lol

 

[ReeferHD]

That's a Colt leather (Cladiella Sp.) that's one of the nicest ones I've seen too.
some of them like to get tall and branch out and some stay bushy.
They're also pretty much unkillable!

Edit: They are super easy to trim but they can release terpenes into the water so I recommend you trim it outside the tank.
I usually use a 5 gallon bucket with some tank water in it to rinse the coral after fragging.

 

[jdpeters]

Started working on a budget softy set up in my fish room hope to have one of those in it

 

[DeanoL]

That's a Colt leather (Cladiella Sp.) that's one of the nicest ones I've seen too.
some of them like to get tall and branch out and some stay bushy.
They're also pretty much unkillable!

Edit: They are super easy to trim but they can release terpenes into the water so I recommend you trim it outside the tank.
I usually use a 5 gallon bucket with some tank water in it to rinse the coral after fragging.

Thank you so much. I really do like it and how it moves in the water.

It's just gotten so big and is taking up so much space.

Glad to hear I can trim it. How much do you recommend I take off? I can take the rock out so will be easy to do it outside of the tank.

I have some silly questions though...sorry - never trimmed a coral before. Do I just use a knife? Or just cut it with scissors?

Also - I'm guessing i cut it like the green line below to get individual trees - just like a broccoli/cauliflower? Not the red line?!?

Sorry for the stupid questions - i just really like it and don't want to kill it, but want it to be a bit smaller...

 

[NanoSteam]

I'm jealous and always looking for one, they're so rare in the hobby now but were a staple 15+ years ago.

 

[pledosophy]

I would cut close to the green line. Then to get it to attach to a piece of rock you can gently zip tie it on a couple places, or some people prefer to tie a mesh over it.

The part you cut will be the part that attaches to the new rock.

It will not glue to a rock. Glue will cause it to slime up and slough off. It needs to be wedged, lightly zipped, or meshed IME

 

[DeanoL]

I'm jealous and always looking for one, they're so rare in the hobby now but were a staple 15+ years ago.

Would happily give you a frag if you were anywhere near Canberra, Australia ;)

 

[NanoSteam]

Would happily give you a frag if you were anywhere near Canberra, Australia ;)

Darn, I'm a tad far in California

 

[DeanoL]

I would cut close to the green line. Then to get it to attach to a piece of rock you can gently zip tie it on a couple places, or some people prefer to tie a mesh over it.

The part you cut will be the part that attaches to the new rock.

It will not glue to a rock. Glue will cause it to slime up and slough off. It needs to be wedged, lightly zipped, or meshed IME

Thanks for the info.

How much do you think is ok to take off at once? Half? No more than a third?

Don't want to shock it too much.

I will try and get some small rock rubble from my LFS to attach the cuttings to.

 

[pledosophy]

You can take pretty big chunks off. They are a very hardy coral.

 

[BryanM]

Very nice! Had not heard of a colt before!