Ricordea mushroom

Care at a glance

Ricordea is a mushroom anemone with a surface covered in short, bulbous tentacles that look like beads. In blue, orange, green or striped, often with a glowing mouth, it is one of the few corals whose colour lights up almost fluorescently under blue light.

In care terms it is a mushroom and therefore forgiving: moderate light, low flow, no critical calcium or alkalinity demands. It reproduces by splitting in two — which can happen spontaneously when it is content. A detached disc will reattach on its own if you place it in a hollow among some rubble; gluing works poorly, as there is no skeleton.

Related species

• Kenya tree coralCapnella sp.
• PoritesPorites sp.
• Birdsnest coralSeriatopora hystrix
• Finger leather coralSinularia sp.
• Clove polypsClavularia sp.
• PocilloporaPocillopora damicornis