Capnella spp. ("Kenya tree")

Kenya tree

Our soft corals will actively be growing onto the frag plug or rock rubble of their own accord, not simply glued onto plugs once cut. We leave all our softies 8 weeks to fully attached their stems to substrate before selling.

Description:

A staple of the 'softie' tank. Great structure, easy to grow, good movement in flow. Often overlooked, due to people seeing drab, spindly specimens, largely neglected at the back of an aquarium. As they are extremely forgiving on conditions it's common to see them left forgotton about in struggling aquaria, looking far from their best! However show them some decent light, flow and care and they can be a wonderful low maintenance addition to aquaria. Extremely variable in colour and form dependant upon flow and lighting provided to them. Under high lighting and good flow they develop pink polyps on a contrasting mauve stem and keep a lovely compact fluffy appearance! A far cry from ones kept in low light and no flow that hang onto existence as straggly grey specimens with dark brown polyps!

A quick note on the whole myth that seems to have perpetuated around trees being invasive. In our opinion this is simply incorrect! These corals propogate, when adults by inflating a branch, detaching it, causing it to float off and settle elsewhere. This branch then takes 1-2 weeks to attach were it settles and grow. Even our large trees only maybe drop one branch every couple of months. We don't really see how this constitutes an 'invasive' coral. If a branch falls where you don't want a new coral, simply remove it before it attaches! Once attached simply holding at the base and giving a gentle pull will remove a tree from rockwork...its not invasive, it's part of regular tank maintenance!! To expect a pristine reef without having to get your hands in and do some tidying every few months is as unrealistic as expecting a manicured garden without pruning, weeding and fertilising!

Size

Expanded frags are around 8cm, be aware as with most soft corals, after shipping they can close and deflate to look little more than a large blob of jelly. Capable of reducing their size by ten times.

Care

Undemanding. Happiest and best expansion seen under moderate to high light and good indirect flow.

Growth

Moderate to fast

Minimum polyp count per frag

Not applicable