Clove Polyp

 Quick Care Facts

• Care Level: Easy   • Temperament: Semi-Aggressive   • Waterflow: Moderate
• Placement: Middle to Top   • Lighting: Medium   • Color Form: Brown, Green, Tan, Pink, Purple, White
 • Supplements: Iodine, Trace Elements, Strontium   • Water Conditions: 72-78° F, dKH 8-12, pH 8.1-8.4, sg 1.023-1.025
• Origin: Indo-Pacific   • Family: Clavulariidae   • Species: Polyp Corals

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The Clove Polyp or Clavularia Clove Polyps goes by a few names including: Eight Tentacle Polyps, or Encrusting Polyps. The Clove Polyp not only has many names, it can also be found in many colors, such as, brown, tan, pink, purple, green, or white. However, their polyps have a single distinctive eight-leaved tentacles associated with all the members of this family.

They are colonial animals with several individual polyp colonies living close together and usually attached to a single piece of live rock. It is important to space this coral carefully within the aquarium, so that it may grow and not be stung and damaged by other aggressive corals. By keeping adequate space between themselves and other corals, the Clove Polyp colonies will have room to grow and a buffer from other aggressive corals can be maintained.

Clove Polyps are not difficult to maintain within a reef aquarium and only require moderate lighting and water movement. The most important aspect of caring for this species is to provide proper mid to top level placement within the aquarium, and to place them where they can expand their colonies without coming into contact with other aggressive corals. Clove Polyps require the addition of iodine and other trace elements to the water to promote health and growth. This species will grow rapidly in an established reef aquarium by encrusting over adjacent rock work or even other less aggressive corals.

Clove Polyps receive their nutrition through the symbiotic algae zooxanthellae hosted within their bodies, which is responsible for providing the majority of their nutritional requirements via the algaes light drive process of photosynthesis. Clove Polyps will also benefit from weekly feedings of micro-plankton or foods designed for filter feeding invertebrates.