Branching Green Star Polyps
Briareum sp.
| Difficulty | Easy |
| Lighting | Low - Medium |
| Water Flow | Low - High Flow |
| Temperament | Peaceful |
| Placement | Bottom - Top |
Branching GREEN STAR POLYP(GSP)/ Briareum
GSP corals are one of the easiest corals to care for. GSP’s can be both encrusting and branching species and will take over your tank if you let them! Green star polyp corals are a colourful species, typically bouting green tips and purple or blue stalks. This coral is known to host copepods due to its flowy and shielding polyps.
There is some confusion amongst hobbyists and scientists alike as to where Branching GSP falls in terms of its genus. They are currently placed in Briareum at this time, due to small differences from Pachyclavularia. The main contingency being that Briareum which can send up vertical projections from their mats with a medullar axis as opposed to Pachyclavularia being capable of forming only “loose folds". Along with this Briareum reportedly produce sweeper tentacles. It has been suspected that along the lineage between the two species there is a shared ancestor.
WATER CHEMISTRY
GSP are not particularly finicky when it comes to water chemistry. While we have our preferred parameters for Alkalinity, Phosphate, and Nitrate GSP will do great in any water chemistry.
The parameters we aim for are:
|
Alkalinity |
8.3 dKH |
|
Phosphate |
0.05 - 0.15 ppm |
|
Nitrate |
5.0 - 15.0 ppm |
It's important to understand that these are the levels that we aim for in our systems. However, that doesn't mean they are the right levels for your system. All aquariums are different and your system may naturally fall on a different balance. You're better off working with the balance your system tends towards than trying to force the same levels that we run.
FLOW
In terms of flow GSP will need to be kept in a moderate - high flow area. They are quite happy when they receive a lot of flow due to the nature of their polyps. This allows for more oxygen to enter into the system along with food in the water column increasing their growth.
LIGHTING
GSP corals have no preference as to what type or amount of lighting they receive. They tend to only care about flow and are able to grow in most locations within a tank. We suggest moving it around to where it seems to be happiest within the tank.