Jason Fox Jack O Lantern - Mad Hatter's Reef Tank

Hey Eveyone! Jeff here, with other article for your salty thumbs. Today, I wanted to talk about Leptoseris more specifically The Jason Fox Jack O Lantern. The JF Jack O Lantern is probably one of my favorite corals in the hobby mostly due to it’s orange and green coloration.

It’s growth pattern it very similar to that of a chalice but there seems to be some confusion whether or not this coral is LPS or SPS, which we’ll dive into a little more in this article.

Beside online photos the first time I saw Jason Fox Jack O Lantern was at my local store. The owner had it in his display tank (the not for sale tank) where I watched it grow for years.

At some point he decided to frag it and sell it off, but I missed out. It wasn’t until my trip to MACNA did I get my hands on this beautiful coral.

Unfortunately, I recently lost this coral due to my battle with rapid tissue necrosis. If you’re unfamiliar with RTN it’s a bacteria infection that cause the coral to die very fast.

It’s been a few months and I have added another Leptoseris to my tank and it’s doing fine so maybe it’s time to acquire another Jason Fox Jack O Lantern.

Jason Fox Jack O Lantern Cost

Typical asking price of the JF Jack O Lantern ranges from $35.00 to 75.00. When it comes to coral the price tag is decided by size of the coral and it’s availability. Local markets often very city to city, due mostly to local coral farmers flooding the market.

If you go to Jason Fox’s website he’s selling 3/4″ frags of Jason Fox Jack O Lantern for $59.00

Jason Fox Jack O Lantern Care

Care for Leptoseris is pretty straight forward. Most experts would agree that this coral prefers low light and low flow. However, in my own saltwater tank I’ve placed them towards the top of my aquascape in high flow area and they have thrived.

The most confusion part of Leptoseris (also known as wrinkle coral) is… whether or not this coral is LPS or SPS. In my research I have found this coral listed as both LPS Coral and SPS coral on many website (some of which I would consider experts), which doesn’t help.

Leptoseris may grow in either an encrusting or plating form with a smooth skin covering its surface. Polyps are extremely small and will appear across the coral’s surface. Which leads me to lean more to a SPS grouping but it’s open for debate.

I hope you found this article helpful and please feel free to share.

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