All About Candy Cane Corals

The Candy Cane coral is a hardy, easy-to-keep coral. They thrive well in low-to-moderate parameters, including water flow and light intensity. As with other corals, they tend to grow best when regularly fed. Read more shortly.

Coral Facts

• Scientific Name: Caulastrea Furcata
• Common Name: Candy Cane Coral, Bullseye Coral, Trumpet Coral
• Type of Coral: LPS (Large Polyp Stony Coral)
• Lighting: Moderate and Moderate to High
• Flow: Moderate and Moderate to High
• Care Level: Moderate
• Temperament: Peaceful to Slightly Aggressive
• Colours: Green, Yellow, Blue & Brown
• Feeding recommended: yes, target feeding of small, meaty zoo-plankton-like foods when feeding polyps are extended
• Calcium supplementation: yes, maintain calcium > 400 ppm

Appearance of candy cane corals

The Caulastrea Candy Cane Coral is a large polyp stony (LPS) coral often called the Torch or Candy Coral.

Beginner and intermediate hobbyists will love Candy Canes corals as they are very easy to keep. Their polyps are mostly found in bright green, yellow, or blue & brown colours. Their polyps glow under blue lights, making them exceptional in your tank.

While some LPS corals are very aggressive and have large sweeping tentacles, this beautiful coral species have very short ѕwеереr tentacles. This means you can keep them with other peaceful corals without causing any harm. It wіll benefit frоm аddіtіоnаl fооd fеd weekly іn the fоrm оf brіnе ѕhrіmр or mісrо-рlаnktоn. It requires mоdеrаtе lіghtіng and mоdеrаtе water mоvеmеnt, along wіth thе addition оf саlсіum, strontium, аnd оthеr trасе еlеmеntѕ tо the wаtеr.

Placement of candy cane frags

Finding the ideal place to care for your Candy corals is as important as how you feed them. However, the first thing is to acclimate your coral to parameters similar to where it just came from. This makes things easier for you and life better for the corals to adapt easily.

Then, gradually improve the parameters to their growth and wellbeing.

Candy corals require medium or lower lighting. So, you may place them in a spot where relative lighting shines in the tank. Remember, Candy corals do not require so much lighting.

Feeding your Candy Cane Coral

While in the wild, Candy Cane Coral feeds on marine algae and tiny saltwater organisms such as planktonic. However, as with other LPS corals, you should eat meaty food such as saltwater fish or coral food. Feeding these Candy corals helps accelerate their growth in due time.

However, the challenge is dealing with boisterous fish like tangs that steal food from calm corals like the Candy species. A way to know is if the tentacles open up. If it does, then you need not bother. And if you don’t see the feeding tentacles, it could just be a sign of stress.

How to Frag candy canes

Fragging a Candy Cane coral colony is a breezy thing to do. Here’s the trick: they grow very rapidly with polyps on elongated stalks. You can easily use a very sharp tool like a coral or bone cutter. This tool helps avoid destroying the lightweight individual branches and delicate polyp flesh. It is fairly straightforward – practically, that’s all it takes!

NEED HELP?

An addition of Candy Cane corals will be a great selection to your aquarium with beautiful colours. However, it could be a challenge to care for them without prior or proper knowledge.

If you would like to own a saltwater coral reef and want to skip the hassles, contact our team of professional reefers today.