Birds of Paradise Bird's Nest

Seriatopora guttatus

Corals of the genus Seriatopora, commonly known as Bird’s Nest are an easy to keep and fast growing SPS coral. They grow into a dense bush like structure and require lots of flow to keep the inside branches of the colony clean.

While much more forgiving of alkalinity swings than other SPS corals like Acropora and Montipora. One should aim to keep alkalinity stable as it will increase both the growth and colouration of Bird’s Nest corals.

Seriatopora loves light and flow. However, we find an emphasis should be placed on high flow. A common issue people run into with this coral is that as it grows into a large colony the inner branches receive less flow. Eventually detritus builds up inside the colony which can cause it to undergo rapid tissue necrosis.

As with all SPS corals our recommendation is to focus on keeping Alkalinity stable. Many people struggle to keep healthy SPS as they aren’t paying enough attention to their alkalinity or they are trying to hit a specific dKH. We are less focused on what the actual dKH of our water is and more interested in making sure that it hasn’t changed since yesterday. When trying to lower or raise the dKH of our systems we always aim to do it as slowly as possible.