Hellfire Torch

Hellfire is a dark torch — a Euphyllia glabrescens selection whose tentacles run deep green to near-black, tipped in molten gold. In a torch garden full of bright greens and golds, the Hellfire reads as the shadow in the group, and the contrast against a gold torch beside it is the whole appeal. The dark-torch family (Dragon Soul, Hellfire, and their relatives) comes from Indonesian and Australian collections, and aquacultured heads now circulate widely in the US hobby.

Care mirrors every quality torch. Medium light in the mid-tank region, moderate flow that keeps the tentacles in slow motion, and stable chemistry — alkalinity 8–10 dKH, calcium 400–450 ppm, temperature 77–79°F. Torches tolerate a wider range than acros, but they record insults in their flesh: a head that retracts for days after every water change is telling you the swing is too big. Seat the skeleton firmly in rock or a holder so the head cannot rock in the current; flesh rubbed raw against rock is the most common way keepers lose an otherwise healthy torch.

Leave a wide berth around it. Hellfire throws night sweepers like the rest of its species and will sting LPS and soft corals within reach. Feed weekly if you want growth — mysis, LPS pellets, or finely chopped seafood taken directly by the tentacles — and a fed colony splits heads noticeably faster. Watch the base when you feed; leftover food rotting under the head invites the bacterial problems torches are known for, so target-feed modestly and let the cleanup crew take the excess.

Field notes — what keepers report: The dark color is light-sensitive in an unusual direction — keepers under very intense light report their Hellfire lightening toward ordinary green, while medium light keeps the body dark and the tips gold. Several keepers pair it deliberately with a gold torch, saying each makes the other look better. As with all named torches, reports also include mislabeled look-alikes, so lineage from a trusted seller carries weight with this strain.

Photo: Josuevg (CC BY-SA 3.0), via Wikimedia Commons. The photo shows a Euphyllia glabrescens torch in an aquarium; the Hellfire strain is an aquacultured selection of this species, chosen for the dark tentacles and gold tips described above.