Hydrophora Rigida (Horn Coral) Info and opinions wanted

[Sylock]

I'm going to be doing some research today on this, but I always like to hear things from people who have or had a specific coral too.

I'm not really sure they have it labled right because it's a great neon green color and is more of a mat/crust on this LR than it is horns. But it's on a piece of Fiji LR that is 6x6x5 inches that has a few other pieces of life on it. They want $40 for it and I figure the rock alone is probably 5-6 pounds ($30-$36).

There are two reasons I didn't buy it. 1) I never buy anything without researching it first, 2) Room. My 10 gallon nano already has an 18 lb piece of rock in it . This will push me up there for space so I'm not sure how things will look.

Reason to get it. I am starting a 55-90 gallon around Christmas time and I would have enough room obviously then. And that would make it so I have about 20% of the LR I need by then full of life and pods. Am I stretching for reasons to get this or am I ok? My wife will end up hating LFSs soon I think.

[Big Dave]

Is this what it looks like? This one is about 12" across. Also, the polyps are not extended, it is furry looking with polyp extension. This is the first day the coral was put in the tank - about 1 hr after.
-Big Dave

[trmills]

Here is a picture of my Horn coral. It was my first coral 5 years ago. It originally was about 3"x4". Now it is about 12" across.

-Terry

http://home.pacbell.net/trmills/Dscn0753-w.jpg

[Sylock]

Both of those a just fantastic looking. So tell me about care and all. Seems like Power Compacts are just not good enough.

[mojoreef]

Sylock from my experence you reallu have to put this coral into two catagories. Daves and trmills corals are what I would call the encrusting and globulouss (sp?) type ( and beautiful corals I may add) fo me these are a much easier coral to keep and usually have great color to them, make sure you give them a bit of room when placing it in your tank.

The other type of hydro is basically a branching type (looks like a very thick branched acro and is usually not as colorful as the above) this type grows will and creates some really nice shapes, but is the nastest coral I have in my tank. It will regurgatae it intestines on to anything that gets close and kill. make sure u give lots of room for this type.


mike