Scientific
Name: Ricordea florida
Classification: Soft Coral
Common Names: Ricordea
Description:
Ricordea is a type of mushroom coral of moderate size. It can be
identified by the fact that it has contrasting raised dots across its
surface. The colors can range from orange, blue, brown, green or purple
and be quite vibrant.
Natural Environment:
Come from Florida waters. Due to restrictions on shipping live
rock from that area, individual polyps are now sometimes sold.
There are also now being imported from outside Florida on live
rock, but they are usually not as attractive.
Care:
Hardiness: Ricordea seem to be
a little more delicate than the typical mushroom coral and success is not
automatically guaranteed.
Lighting: Requires at least moderate light levels. Very high
intensity lighting may cause the colors to fade somewhat. The
salmon colored specimen at the top is under 400W MH lighting and has
faded somewhat from its original color.
Water Current: Prefers low water motion for best
expansion.
Temperature: Does well within a range of at least 78º to 82º F.
Aggressiveness: Moderate. Growth pattern can
lead to encroachment on its neighbors. Ricordea appears to be able to
effectively kill other corals that it comes into contact with as can
be seen in the picture above. Since they are slow growing
corals, this does not generally create a large issue.
Feeding: Ricordea are photosynthetic and survive fine with no feeding.
They will take small meaty foods like brine shrimp if offered.
Photo above shows one eating a mysid shrimp
Supplements: No special requirements are noted. Normal acceptable
water parameters seem to suite it just fine.
Tank Positioning: No special requirements other than keeping them in
a fairly low water flow part of the tank and ensure that they get adequate
lighting. This usually implies that they will be positioned need the
bottom of the tank.
