Torch Coral

The torch coral waves in the current like the flame of a torch with its long, round-tipped tentacles. Its skeleton is branching: each polyp head sits at the end of its own branch, and the heads split in two over time. Its tentacles are longer and more flowing than those of the hammer and frogspawn, and the tips are often a different color from the body. Color forms change hands among collectors at high prices.

In the 2017 molecular revision the hammer and frogspawn were moved to the genus Fimbriaphyllia, while the torch is one of the species that stayed in Euphyllia. Its trade is subject to CITES Appendix II. Choose an aquacultured frag or a maricultured colony; wild-collected colonies suffer more damage in transport.

• Indo gold torch: Yellow-gold body and tentacles.
• Green torch: Green body with pale tips; the most common and cheapest form.
• Named collector forms (Dragon Soul, Hellfire, Holy Grail, etc.): Expensive forms carrying several colors together, offered by sellers under special names. Colonies sold under the same name can look different under different lighting.

It lives in many different reef environments from the Red Sea to the Western and Central Pacific, on wave-sheltered slopes and along lagoon edges; it is rare in the Red Sea. Thanks to its broad habitat range, it can also adapt to different light levels in the aquarium.

• Light: Moderate light, about 75–200 PAR. In very strong light the tip colors fade and the tentacles shorten.
• Flow: Moderate, indirect and variable. The tentacles should wave fluidly; strong flow tangles and tears the long tentacles.
• Placement: The middle zone of the rockwork; since the long tentacles are swept around by the current, there must be plenty of space around it.
• Water parameters: Salinity 1.024–1.026, KH 7–10 dKH, calcium 400–450 mg/L, magnesium 1250–1350 mg/L. Sensitive to swings in KH and temperature. Its colors are vivid and its tissue full when nitrate is around 2–10 mg/L and phosphate around 0.03–0.1 mg/L.

It is photosynthetic but responds very well to supplemental feeding. Once or twice a week, slowly release mysis, chopped shrimp or fine-grained LPS food over the tentacles; the tentacles catch the food and carry it to the mouth. Regularly fed colonies form new heads more often. Siphon out leftover food.

It is the most aggressive of the Euphyllia relatives. Its long tentacles already sweep a wide area; at night stinging "sweeper" tentacles reaching 15 cm are added to them. Leave at least 15–20 cm of space between it and other corals. It is known to burn even hammer and frogspawn corals; it should not be placed on the same rock as them. Two torch colonies, however, can usually live touching each other.

Clownfish may host in a torch. Dwarf angelfish, butterflyfish and some hermit crabs may pick at the tentacles.

Thanks to its branching skeleton, it is easy to propagate. The branch of a fully divided head is cut with coral cutters a few centimeters below, without touching the tissue, and glued to a frag plug. The new frag is rested for a few days in low flow. Do not cut heads that are in the process of splitting before the separation is complete; if the mouth has not yet divided, the tissue is damaged.

• Brown jelly: Rapidly spreading, slimy brown tissue; cut the affected head off at its branch and remove it immediately.
• Rapid tissue recession: In recent years, fast tissue loss of not fully understood cause has frequently been reported in torch colonies. Watch a new colony in quarantine for a few weeks, and do not immediately place torches from different sources next to each other.
• Short, closed tentacles: A sudden increase in light, strong flow, KH swings or contact with a neighboring coral.