Acropora

Acropora for Sale

Most reefers save the acro for last, and for good reason. In a stable tank, Acropora grow fast and color like nothing else. In an unstable one, they can lose their tissue in a day. This page has ACI aquacultured frags, TUG lines like Jake Adams Toxic Green and Blue Flame, named corals like Oregon Tort and Bali Green Slimer, and WYSIWYG mini colonies. WYSIWYG listings are the exact coral in the photo.

Is your tank ready for an acro?

• Alkalinity, calcium and magnesium that hold steady from one test to the next. Swings kill acros faster than any single bad number.
• Strong, random flow across the whole colony.
• Enough light: most keepers run acros at 200 PAR or more.
• Nitrate and phosphate that read low but not zero.

If you are not there yet, start with an easier SPS. Montipora, birdsnest, Stylophora and Anacropora all forgive more.

How to tell an Acropora

Look at the tip of a branch. Acropora has one larger polyp at the very tip, called the axial corallite, and no other coral has it. Montipora, Anacropora and birdsnest can look similar, but none has that tip polyp.

Acro care, in numbers

• Light: 200 to 400 PAR for most acros. Many keepers run 300 or more for color. Acclimate new frags slowly.
• Flow: strong and random, reaching the whole colony.
• Alkalinity: 8 to 10 dKH is a common target. Pick a number and hold it.
• Calcium and magnesium: about 400 to 450 ppm calcium and 1,250 to 1,350 ppm magnesium.
• Nutrients: nitrate around 2 to 10 ppm and phosphate around 0.02 to 0.1 ppm. Running them to zero causes its own problems.
• Feeding: they take phytoplankton and fine zooplankton, but light and stable water matter far more.

Bringing a new acro home

Dip every new acro before it goes in, and look closely at any bare skeleton at the base for flatworm eggs. Then place it lower than you plan to keep it. A coral rarely dies from too little light for a week, and many have been burned by a sudden jump to full light. Move it up over a few weeks.

Pests to know

Acropora-eating flatworms (AEFW)

Small flatworms, under a quarter inch, that blend into the coral. Signs are round bite marks on the tissue and clusters of eggs glued to bare skeleton. The eggs survive dips and hatch days to weeks later depending on temperature, so one dip is never enough. Dip, scrape off any eggs, and repeat before the next generation matures.

Red bugs

Tiny copepods that live in the polyps. Signs are color loss and polyps that will not extend. Dips knock them back. Treating a whole display is possible but harms shrimp, crabs and copepods, so talk to someone experienced first.

RTN and STN

Rapid tissue necrosis (RTN) is tissue sloughing off fast, sometimes across the colony in a day, and it can spread to other acros. Slow tissue necrosis (STN) creeps up from the base over days or weeks. With either, cut the healthy branches above the dead line, dip them, and look hard at what changed in the tank.

Why acros turn brown

Brown usually means the coral is packed with more symbiotic algae than it wants, most often from rising nutrients. Light that is too weak or a recent stress can do it too. High nitrate with phosphate near zero raises bleaching risk, so keep both measurable.

Questions we get asked

Are aquacultured acros easier?

Yes. Frags that have grown in captivity for generations are much hardier than fresh wild or maricultured imports.

How fast do they grow?

Fast, once settled in a stable tank. That speed is why a frag becomes a colony, and why a swing shows up so quickly.

Shop Acropora by strain

These named strains each have their own listing.

• Dreamweaver Acropora
• Gold Rush (Acropora hyacinthus)
• Jake Adams Toxic Green Acropora
• Light Bright Acropora
• Wild Indigo Acropora
• Glow Tip Acropora
• Holiday Rave Acropora

How it ships from Key West

Acros ship UPS Next Day Air on Tuesdays and Wednesdays only, so no box sits in a hub over a weekend. We ship to the lower 48. We do not ship to Alaska or Hawaii.

• Shipping charge: $30 for qualifying Florida livestock orders under 6 lb, and $50 elsewhere in the lower 48. The shipping charge is per order.
• Free livestock transportation: on qualifying livestock subtotals of $299 or more. WYSIWYG pieces count toward the $299. Dry goods do not.
• Box & Handling Fee: $10 per livestock box, and it still applies on orders with free livestock transportation. A box carries up to 6 lb of packed livestock. Heavier orders go out in additional boxes, each with its own $10 fee.
• Live arrival: if something arrives dead, photograph the animal inside the unopened bag within 4 hours of UPS delivery confirmation and send it with your order number.

Keep reading

• Acropora Care Guide: Light, Alkalinity, Pests and Your First Acro
• Acropora: Identification and Care
• Coral Bleaching vs STN vs RTN
• How to Dip Corals
• Reef Tank Water Parameters
• Montipora · Birdsnest · All SPS corals · WYSIWYG corals