Alcyonium is a genus of soft corals from the family Alcyoniidae named after it, better known as leather corals. Beside the tropical species, which are interesting for us, many species from cold water areas are found in this genus, whose distribution includes for example the Mediterranean Sea or the northern Atlantic Ocean or South Pacific. Therefore there are many azooxanthellate species in Alcyonium, which live in cold water as filter feeders on plankton.
For example, the dead sea hand Alcyonium digitatum, which occurs from the Baltic Sea over the North Sea, the Channel coast, the European Atlantic to the Mediterranean, or Alcyonium palmatum, the red dead sea hand, which populates the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic coast. These azooxanthellate soft corals require clean water and must be fed on fine plankton, which is often unsuccessful over a long period of time.
However, the keeping of these Alcyonium in the aquarium often fails already because of the mandatory water cooling for corals from the Mediterranean Sea.
More interesting for us as marine aquarists are thus the tropical species, which possess zooxanthellae and are photosynthetic that way. The only species really common here is Alcyonium versefeldtii, which forms small cushions and has a really spectacular blue-green coloration. Fortunately, it is very easy to keep, with few demands on water quality. It can tolerate a little more light - if it is placed too shady, the growth stretches conspicuously upwards.
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