Also see: Blastomussa wellsi
Also see: Blastomussa wellsi
This coral from Indonesia superficially resembles a brain or boulder coral, but it differs from them in that the polyps are not fully interconnected by a continuous mat of living tissue. Other than recently budded polyps, which have more tissue connecting them to neighboring polyps, each polyp lives atop a separate column of calcium carbonate skeleton that it secretes. When fully expanded, the individual polyps somewhat resemble small mushroom anemones.
There are two species in this genus of corals, one with smaller polyps (Blastomussa merleti), and one with larger polyps (Blastomussa wellsi). Corals in this genus exist in many color forms, including colonies with various combinations of red, orange, brown, and fluorescent green. Click for photos of very colorful Blastomussa wellsi.
Our B. merleti has polyps that are brown with centers that fluoresce green under actinic (blue) lights. These actinic lights supplement the white light from the metal halide bulbs over our tanks. These blue lights also provide the sole illumination during hour-long dawn and dusk periods before and after the much brighter metal halide bulbs are on.