ECC Christmas Tree Feather Duster Porites colony

About the ECC Christmas Tree Feather Duster Porites colony

Care Level: Moderate
Temperament: Peaceful
Reef Safe: Yes
Diet: Filter Feeder
Minimum Tank Size: 10 Gallons
Placement: Middle to Top
Lighting: High
Waterflow: Moderate

These are one of our Favorites items to get! Christmas Tree rocks are high up on any reefers list of desires and if you haven’t heard of them yet, you’ll wonder how! So, this item is a Porites coral colony that has been growing for quite some time. As it does it creates its own little rock, layer and layer of coral forms over time building upon the base. Eventually there’s enough space for sea worms, commonly called feather dusters, to move in. They burrow into the coral colony and make small tubes to live in, this does not harm the corals by the way they just keep growing doing their own thing. After enough time you’ll get a whole host of neighboring worms who move into the same rock creating their own little neighborhood, just watch out for those HOAs if you know you know. Haha jokes aside these coral colonies are just so much fun to have as the feather duster worms are also colorful critters and will quickly retreat into their burrow when disturbed, then they slowly unfold as they come out in this beautiful twisting motion. The reason they get the name Christmas tree rock or sometimes X-mas tree worm is because of the shape of the feather dusters feathering being conical and the Porites being commonly green bases. They look like differently decorated Christmas trees dotting a field, all deep in the ocean. Truly what a site is must be to come across one not knowing what you’re seeing for the first time.

Now for some care requirements, coral itself is like any other Porites being a type of encrusting SPS it likes high light good water flow and fairly clean water quality. The Christmas tree worms, however, do eat particulate matter out of the water column and should be placed mid to high in your tank with good flow for this reason. They should be broadcast fed once or twice a week with coral food, but they will also naturally eat some of what’s getting fed to your fish, if you’re feeding frozen foods. If you’re a pellet only feeder we recommend adding some frozen food to your fish’s diet for this colony or just amp the broadcast or target coral food feeding up a day or two depending on your nutrient levels, don’t forget to test!