Leptoseriscoral is probably one of the coolest yet least talked about corals on the stony side of the reef aquarium hobby. There are a few reasons for this, first off this coral is predominantly found in deeper water, so it is less often collected by general coral collectors.
Leptoseriscorals are also not the easiest to keep since too much light can easily bleach it. But if you succeed in obtaining a nice specimen ofLeptoserisyou may be rewarded by a coral which truly stands out like this orange dimpled platingLeptoseris mycetoseroides.
We obtained this amazing colony of L. mycetoseroides over 18 months ago from LiveAquaria. At first the orange dimpled platingLeptoseriswas pretty stagnant in terms of growth, it suffered a mild bleaching when it was exposed to near UV LED light, but then it recovered. The orange Leptoseris challice also went through an unexplained mild recession episode which was short lived and only affected a few small areas. The Leptoseris mycetoseroides gradually recovered from both the mild bleaching and recession events and over the last twelve months it has since colored up into this amazing jewel of a coral.
Everyone who visits this aquarium always points out the brilliant almost metallic orange chalice-shapedLeptoserisand quickly follows up with “you should frag that” as a hint that they want a frag. We shared a medium sized piece of this coral with Chris Bueschelle of Reefkoi and he made some of these available about this time last year. If you were lucky enough to get some orangeLeptoserisfrom Reefkoi a while back it may have been this piece. Now that the orangeLeptoseris mycetoseroideshas a nice two inch border grown it may just be time to frag it again, would you agree?
