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Soft Corals: Soft corals are members of the order Alcyonacea. These corals can grow to over 2 feet across in the wild, and are found in a variety of colors.
Soft corals will defend their space on the reef by secreting a chemical that inhibits the growth of neighboring coral. In reef aquariums, it is important to leave adequate space between different species of corals to avoid problems with growth or aggression. Most soft corals grow rapidly in reef aquariums, and are relatively hardy corals for the inexperienced reef aquarist. Soft corals have different light and water flow requirements, so should be selected based upon the environment in which they will be kept. Soft corals will sometimes shed their protective coating within the aquarium in order to clean detritus and bacteria from their bodies. This mucus often irritates other corals and should be removed from the aquarium. The common form of reproduction in Soft Corals is asexual by budding, a process in which the parent coral produces a miniature replica of itself that eventually breaks away and attaches to a hard structure. This is common in a well-established reef aquarium that is properly maintained. The most of the Soft Corals contain the symbiotic algae zooxanthellae and receive the majority of their nutritional needs from the light driven process of photosynthesis. It will also be beneficial to supplement the diet with additional food such as micro-plankton, baby brine shrimp, or foods designed for filter feeding invertebrates. Click on thumbnails for more information.
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