So what prompted this blog entry was a sudden discovery of a grafted coral. Well, not by shape, rather than by color. You see there is enough documentation to suggest that corals can allow their zooxanthellae to ‘jump ship’ and board another coral. It is rarely seen, but plausible.

This is what happened to a A. tenuis and a A. suharsonoi. The yellow suharsono was touching the tips of the tenuis. I assume over time, the pignments were trasfered from the tenuis into the suharsonoi. The suharsonoi developed random blue spots which are clearly visible.

The problem when trying this out with your own corals is that often than not it does not work. Corals will sting each other and will leave a dead parts behind. I know this, as I have tried it with A. milleporas and without any success.

Yes, pics are forthcoming, so patience will be your new virtue!

This unidentified Acroproa will not stay unknown for long, as I am working towards that goal. What is important is that this coral is just brilliant. The color resembles of one other rare specimen, the Strawberry Shortcake. The only real difference is the species (duh!). More of this coral can be found here.

Have yourselves a great weekend! Until next time reefnecks!

The idea of the trip was to focus on having fun for the first time with the new fam, as our daughter is just 8 months old, but I found with my limited time in the water that things are looking superb for this region of the ocean. I was quite surprised how much things have grown since hurricane Katrina. In 2007 I visited Mexico’s dive haven.. Cozumel, and have seen the damage that the hurricane has caused the Caribbean. But it has been almost three years since the devastation, and things are looking up.

While snorkeling just off the coast of our resort, I have spotted at least a few colonies of three-four year old Acropora cervicornis as well as massive 5′x5′ colonies of Acropora palmata. Those were amazing indicators of recovering life underwater. Soon thereafter I had spotted mats of Palythoas, specifically the caribbaeorum species. It was quite a sight, with mats that were at least 10′x10′ in size.

Amongst the many Madracis and Colpophyllia corals, I found an astounding number of fish as well. From mated paired french angels, to cephalopods, I have seen them all. In fact, I got a pretty good ink spraying from a local octopus. Off topic, has anyone tasted octopus ink in a paella? Super yummy.

One of the consequences of hot weather and stagnant water (but in relative terms, as water is never really stagnant) is bleaching of several coral species. Case in point the many Millepora (Fire Coral) species that were found completely white. It was quite odd, as no other coral was affected like the Milleporas. It must have resulted from some recent events,  as recent as this summer perhaps. Having seen that, I can easily conclude that the reef in this region is becoming more resilient to these types of sudden changes. Again, a great thing for this region.

On a side note, that could relate to many reefers in the world, this region of the ocean had a plethora of algae. And I mean all types; Valonia (Valonia aegagropila, and Valonia macrophysa), Caulerpa (bubble, fan, etc), different types of turf, and drum roll please….    Bryopsis. Tons and tons of Bryopsis. Seeing that made me believe that there must be a predator in this region, besides the very few lettuce nudibranchs (Elysia crispata), that I can find. The only thing that came close were these tiny conches (Strombus alatus) that resembled the fighting conches from Indonesia. They were always found near or embedded within the Bryopsis. If there is a next time, I will take a better look to determine whether these little guys are a key solution for the nightmarish problem. Obviously the solution is in these waters, we just have to find them.

My last long snorkel of the trip ended with me getting a great laugh at the squid getting chased by the needlenose fish. So where are all of those pics? Well my camera that has the underwater housing wasn’t brought into Mexico due to its inability to show itself to me. So we went without it. It will not ever happen again. To keep you all happy, I will ow you some pics from three years ago in Cozumel:

Until next time reefnecks!

So when the people at ORA released its new specimen, we wondered “Why do this to your reputation!?”. The ORA Soli, as in Acropora soliteryensis, is the new ORA baby. It features brown coral body with slight purple axial corallites. Sure this coral is different from its cousin, the Efflo, but at least have the coral contain some resemblance of ORA’s past releases in terms of coral quality. Here it is in its infancy:

photo by ORA

Our message to ORA is: you better have a dandy set up for the next release. Reefers are anxiously waiting for a slam dunk, as this one misses the free throw!

Happy reefing everyone!

Acropora millepora Fragdit Christmas

Fragment sizes can range from 1.5″ to 3″, depending on how we feel that day , but all will be at 50$ per cut. We are going to release 3 frags in two weeks time, so if you want a piece of this amazing specimen, fire us an email and get in before others do.

Happy reefing everyone!

photo by Reeferral on Reef Central

 Although it may look bleached, I assure you thats not the case. Some corals can achieve this look, while being healthy. Tenuis acroporas are very easy to take care of, and should be given ample light and flow.

Sorry, got carried away a bit. On to the coral!

photo by rigleautomotive on Reef Central

This A. millepora may look like a common specimen, but even pictures can make those mundane corals look stunning! Bravo rigleautomotive!

Just take a look at this spectacular pink A. prostrata, by RafalO on Reef Central:

photo by RafalO on Reef Central

We can find beauty in just about any coral, so do not give up on them even if they are brown!

How does Mother nature figure out to color this nasuta with yellow, green and pink?

photo by ct vol on Reef Central

The story of this coral comes from reeffarmers.com (Steve Tyree):

This Acropora is an exotic coral with brilliantly colored pink polyps that extend during the day. The main branch stems are colored bright lime green. One of the tentacles in each polyp will super extend and this gives the thin branching Acropora a hairy pink appearance. The coral also has some purplish/blue pigments that can appear in the base or on branches. Reeffarmers acquired our fragment from Hugo Zuniga (snipersps). The coral has a very interesting captive history. Hugo acquired his fragment in late 2003 from John Susbilla (Tubs). John had been growing his captive grown fragments from an imported colony that he probably acquired back in the late 1990′s. John was calling the coral Lime Green Acro and a few fragments were distributed. Unfortunately it appeared that everyone lost the coral for a time except for Alex (Reefer on a Budget) who had acquired an early fragment from Tubs. Alex then distributed fragments to Tubs, Mingwei and Joleen of Atlantis Aquarium. Hugo acquired an Alex fragment through Tubs. Early on this coral had interesting but not spectacular coloration. Alex believes that under 10,000 K the coral was more of a yellow with orange brown polyps and a purplish growth edge. He then noticed that when Rob Zayan placed a fragment under 20,000 K halides the true spectacular pigment morphs developed. Eventually Hugo’s fragment grew into a colony and through Tubs a fragment from Hugo was sold on Ebay for $550.00 . Tubs decided to change the name to Pink Lemonade Acropora for marketing purposes. Atlantis Aquarium began calling the coral ‘Shades of Fall’. A second Ebay sale of the coral went for $400.00 . It now looks like both Reeffarmers and Atlantis are going to use the name ‘Pink Lemonade Acropora’. The coral grows slowly and it has not been widely distributed. Hugo believes he only distributed about 10 fragments before his colony was recently lost in an accident. It also turns out that John Susbilla acquired his original Lime Green Acropora from Steve Tyree (owner/operator of Reeffarmers) many years ago. Steve remembers handling a few of these Acropora species morphs and he currently believes the coral was originally exported from the Solomons. Only a few ever came in and it was a very delicate to ship colony. Only tiny colonies of frag colonies made it alive from the Solomons. Steve sold the coral to John Susbilla (Tubs) back before John started his online company. John was a collector of exotic stonies back then and at that time Steve was one of only a few people who specialized in handling stonies. Steve has not seen this coral morph imported since the Solomons experienced a civil war.

This coral comes with a steep price-tag. A lot of US online vendors sell 1/2″ specimens at a minimum of 60$, upwards to 120$ for a 1″ frag. Fortunately for Canadian reefers, we at Fragd.it have acquired this coral and will have fragments up for sale within a few months. Stay tuned here for all the latest.

You see we have owned a coral of similar ilk for well over a few years. It has grown into two substantial colonies in our show tank. To our surprise, it resembled as a carbon copy of the ORA Pearlberry, except through its coloration. What was our Acropora coral? Acropora inermis.

Via AIMS:

Colonies are usually open branched, becoming bushy on upper reef slopes and in shallow lagoons. Main branches may have compact branchlets giving colonies a bushy appearance. Corallites are widely spaced and vary greatly in size, the largest being appressed and tubular. The coenosteum is fine, giving branches a smooth appearance.

This is our coral:

Fragd.it's Acropora inermis

ORA Pearlberry via ORACorals.com

Through our observation and keen eyes, we believe that the eluded species has been finally identified. Do you guys agree?

UPDATE: some macros for comparison

Fragd.it frags of Acropora inermis

ORA Pearberry macro photo by DurTBear