One of the first corals in our tank - The Big Polyp Blastomussa Coral is also commonly known as Blastomussa Pineapple Coral or just Blastos. They are considered LPS. We first stumbled upon this coral as an add-on coral in a bulk buy.

So shortly after the first, we bought a few more. We ended up with 3 more wellsis and a merletti - from Australia. Blastos can come in blue, brown, red, green, or a combination of all of these colors. There's two common types that we are aware of: wellsi and merletti. Wellsi has larger polyps and is the first type that we got. Who knew that this coral would quickly become one of our favs.

It was hard at the time to really tell the polyp size difference between wellsi and merletti when buying online, but when you see them next to each other, it's much more apparent.

What we learned: Placement

Blastos are a pretty hardy and low maintenance coral. We learned pretty quickly that they like low water current and moderate to low light levels. In fact, with too high of either, the wellsi start looking like merletti!

What we learned: Food

Blastos, like other LPS, get majority of its nutritional requirements through photosynthesis. It does not require additional food to maintain health, but we have target fed mysis and they do have small feeder tentacles that come out where food will stick. Regardless of whether it makes a significant growth difference - it's fun to target feed! We also found that routinely feeding amino acids make them their fluffiest the next day! We have used both Red Sea Plus AB+ as well as AquaVitro Fuel.

What we learned: Conclusion

WE LOVE BLASTOS. They are seemingly underrated. We love how low maintenance they are yet they can easily be the "feature of the tank." They are non invasive yet a good grower, colorful, have good movement, and look great in clusters. All wins in our book.