Blue & Green Sympodium

[treesprite]

I stopped at KoC on my way home from cheater camping, and discovered the blue and green sympodium. Very pretty, good price, so I bought a frag.

 

Apparently it is only recently gaining popularity, so there wasn't enough quickly available info on the internet while researching on my phone in the store. So if anyone has had it long enough to give any info about it's behavior in a reef tank, I'd appreciate hearing about it. Is it going to broadcast spawn all over the tank like blue/purple clove polyps do, or will it stay in one spot if I don't let it touch anything I don't want it to grow on?

 

No picture, because it still hasn't opened up in my tank.

 

 

[YHSublime]

I had it in my nano, and would have given it to you for free. Grows very fast, and is hard to control if it touches something else. Isolated I didn't seem to have any problems with it, but somebody can probably speak better to that. 

 

I think I remember it being in SWAP, and Rob cautioned that it was trouble. 

[treesprite]

i think I have just not been around here enough. i don't often look at SWAP either

 

On one site there was a comment that it is related to xenia, but some other place said it is related to zoanthids. Im ok with it as long as it doesn't just show up everywhere on it's own.

Edited June 7, 2016 by treesprite

[zygote2k]

There are 3 version of Sympodium that I have been growing for 5+ years.

Blue- can spread like wildfire when conditions are ripe. Has sexual reproduction and also extends mat.

Blue-green-- grows much slower than blue and is an excellent encruster.

Blue-red-green--- much rarer than the other 2 and grows like b/g.

 

It's been in the club for some time, so it should be fairly easy to get.

[treesprite]

Now I feel like a total noob. How on earth did I miss it being around all this time? Stuff on the internet makes it sound like some really new thing, at least what I could find in a couple minutes standing over the frags in the shop.

 

Thanks, Rob. Should I dare ask what b/g is?

 

This stuff is still not opening, just sticking out tips a slight bit little further.   I'm not 100% sure if there is any red, but it's definitely got both blue and green.

[ReefAddict]

I have blue and it will not be making the trip when upgrading my tank.  It spreads fairly quickly in my tank.  Every other week or so there is a new cluster on the sand below the rocks it has already completely covered.  It is very nice looking though. 

[elbowdeep88]

I think the blue is a type of Clavularia ("aussie/japanese blue clove"). These are tiny baby blue polyps that spawn and spread and grow everywhere, though the color is attractive.

 

Whereas true Sympodium (blue/green and blue/green/red as described above) grows on little mats (kinda like gsp).

 

Both are Octocorallia (some would say you have to go all the way up to Class Anthozoa), but based on my understanding, VERY different taxonomy and growth.

 

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2114911

 

Vs

 

http://m.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=597+1464+3082&pcatid=3082

Edited June 10, 2016 by elbowdeep88

[ParrotFish]

Now I feel like a total noob. How on earth did I miss it being around all this time? Stuff on the internet makes it sound like some really new thing, at least what I could find in a couple minutes standing over the frags in the shop.

 

Thanks, Rob. Should I dare ask what b/g is?

 

This stuff is still not opening, just sticking out tips a slight bit little further.   I'm not 100% sure if there is any red, but it's definitely got both blue and green.

B/G was shorthand for the blue/green version he mentioned earlier in his post

[treesprite]

Hah, I thought he was using an abbreviation for a coloful term.