Wrinkle Coral (Leptoseris)

Distribution: Everywhere there's a tropical reef habitat
Coloration: Specimens may be found in many colors including green, orange, gold
Care level: Medium difficulty
Lighting requirements: Cryptic to low
Flow: High

SG: 1.023-1.026.
Calcium: 400-500.
Alk: 8-12.
Magnesium: 1350-1500.
Temperature: 76-82
Growth: Relatively slow



Leptoseris may grow in either an encrusting or plating form with a smooth skin covering its surface. Polyps are extremely small and will appear randomly across the flesh surface.

I currently only house one strain of leptoseris which came from MACNA 2011, in Des Moines, from Jason Fox's booth, under the trade name "Sun God". It grew out in a large reef for a couple of years until we finally got a small clipping to start culturing frags.

Leptoseris is one of the toughest SPS corals I've encountered so far. I've bleached pieces down to the white of the skeleton only to have them make a full recovery when conditions were righted. Lepto seems to thrive in all conditions I place it in although care must be taken to keep them in cryptic or low light zones of a reef tank. Leptoseris has a unique structure which has been hypothesized to pass light through zooxanthellae filled tissues several times in order to scrub as much energy as possible from it which makes it possible for them to live at much lower light levels than most other corals.

As with all hard coral, attention to calcium, alkalinity and magnesium is important, and as with all encrusting or plating corals, higher flow is preferable to keep flesh clear of debris.

 

Mine has been a slow grower but it is a very cool. This is a couple months back.
jack-o-lantern leptoseris

 

Here's my green lepto sharing a rock with some stubborn mushrooms and a war coral. The lepto gets some cool sweepers down towards the mushrooms. I wonder if it's defense against them (mushrooms)?

It's been getting super low light lately and doesn't really look particularly green here. However, under just the blues at night, it glows and it's bright!