Introduction
Toadstool corals can grow surprisingly quickly, and some will grow more than twelve inches per year if they are kept in the correct conditions. It may take between 6 and 10 years for one of these corals to fully mature.
Toadstool corals are popular aquarium inhabitants, but as with any addition, it’s important to know how quickly one will spread throughout the tank and how it will interact with the other tank inhabitants. There are several different varieties of these corals, and most are suitable for adding to a reef tank to increase the diversity.
Toadstool corals may gain more than an inch of size per month, and many toadstool corals grow quickly to fill parts of the tank.
This is often a benefit, because it means you can enjoy the aesthetic of this beautiful addition as soon as possible – although it may take a little while before the coral actually gets going.
When you first add a coral to your tank, it is quite likely that it will do nothing for a short period. This is because it is taking some time to adjust to the parameters and environment of the new tank, and this is absorbing all of its energy.
Don’t be surprised if your coral doesn’t apparently do anything for a few weeks, and then suddenly you see an explosion of growth. Your toadstool coral is perfectly capable of growing fast when it is happy, so once it is used to the tank, it will hopefully start to expand in size.
Of course, the tank conditions have to be suitable for this to happen; if you keep a toadstool coral in unsuitable conditions, it is likely not to grow at all.
If the conditions are acceptable but not particularly good, the coral may grow, but it will probably do so slowly, and you may find that it doesn’t visibly change from week to week. It will gain size, but it probably won’t grow at the rate of 12 inches per year, and certainly won’t achieve more than this.
Instead, it will probably only gain a few inches, and this is a good indication that it is not happy about some condition within the tank – which you will need to take steps to correct.
A young coral will probably gain size much faster than a mature coral, so expect that your toadstool will slow down its growth as it ages. This is normal and nothing to worry about.
How Big Do Toadstool Leather Corals Get?
It’s challenging to estimate how big a toadstool coral will get because this depends both on the variety and the conditions that it is grown in. On average, most toadstool corals are between 2 and 25 inches, but that’s a huge range that doesn’t tell you a lot about how the coral will look once it is in place.
If you want a toadstool coral, it’s a good idea to research how large that specific variety might grow. This should make it easier to assess how many will fit into your tank and how much space they will take up.
You need to make sure that your corals have enough space between each other, as well as enough space to separate them from other tank inhabitants. They should ideally be between 6 and 10 inches apart from each other, giving them room to grow and feed.
Don’t put a toadstool coral too close to other corals, or it won’t be happy – but unlike some corals, it won’t try to digest its neighbors or attack them.
In the wild, some toadstool corals can reach as much as 32 inches across, so be aware that certain varieties could get extremely large. You may not want to grow more than one of these in your tank, unless you have a huge amount of space for it to fill.
It’s unlikely that a variety grown in a tank will reach such impressive proportions, but be aware that they can get very large, and if you provide the right conditions, your toadstool coral may decide to “take over” the tank.
How Much Light Does A Toadstool Coral Need?
These corals generally grow in shallow waters, and they like quite a lot of light, although they will also tolerate lower light levels if that’s the setup you have. Many people grow them in high-intensity light aquariums because they are perfectly happy with this, which makes them a flexible option to own.
In general, it’s advised that you position your toadstool coral in 100 to 190 PAR, with 400 to 470 nm for the spectrum. Some people say that they can cope fine with more light, and it’s better to aim for a PAR between 150 and 300, but you’ll have to acclimatize them to this gradually.
A toadstool coral should be suitable for your tank as long as it could be considered to have moderate to high lighting – this should closely mimic the shallow waters that the coral naturally grows in, and will ensure that it has all the light it needs to grow, feed, and stay healthy.
Toadstool corals are somewhat unusual in that they have a high tolerance for saturated light, since they spend a lot of their time in the natural world with the full sun striking them. However, you should still be cautious about letting them get too much saturated light.
If you need to change how much light your coral gets, do so gradually so that you do not shock it. Like all corals, toadstools do best when changes are slow, allowing time for the coral to adjust to the new conditions before they change again.
Conclusion
Many things will affect how fast a toadstool coral grows, including the tank conditions, the age of the coral, and the variety that you have chosen. You may find it helps to take pictures of your toadstool coral so you can see how quickly its growth is progressing, but don’t be surprised if it gains half an inch per month or more in its early years.
