Acans Acans Acans the collection journey

[All Delight]

I've been collecting acans for several years. Shortly after getting consumed by this hobby, acans captured my attention and have always been the spotlight of my tank. I'd like to share my love for them and all the different ones I've collected. My collection is an assortment of the Acanthastrea species, included Lordhowensis, Bowerbanki, Hillae, Echinata, Maxima (sold to me as anyways LOL).

I've collected what the hobby has classified as Indo acans, Non Indo acans, Aussie acans. Indo acans are mostly nice reds and greens. The nicest one I had was a very vibrant red and the polyps would get very large (1.5"-2" diameter) and would extend out 2"-3".

From my experience the Non Indo acans grew the slowest and often dided from polyp bailout. But the different colors that are available are magnificent. The true pinks that are available in these species are stunning.

Then came the Aussie wave which opened a whole new avenue of colors. The endless combination of rainbows, even bi colors are amazing.

I'll start off my first picture with one my first acans back in 2006, sold to me as an Indo acan.

 

[All Delight]

Another Indo acan

 

[All Delight]

These polyps would get HUGE. 3" was no problem.

 

[All Delight]

I have to say this is the rarest acan I ever owned. Perhaps not the rarest species, I'm no scientist, but collectively the corals itself along with the colors is what makes it the rarest to me. Throughout the years of this hobby I have yet to come across another one like it.

I couldn't quite capture the correct colors, but was a very nice pink and green. It was sold to me as a Hillae, but compared to the other Hillae's I've owned this one was waaay different. The polyps were large and wouldn't extend very much. And it never grew. I had it for over 2 years, and it didn't grow.....at all. Polyps stayed the same size, never grew any new ones.

Of all the corals that died on me, this is one of the few I'd absolutely love to have back.

 

[daddy2kids]

Great pics. I love acans, too.

 

[nepenthes99]

Beautiful pics, I am just starting to get into acans.

 

[All Delight]

Auusie Rainbows.....


LSD

Peacekeeper

Udo

Tunnel Vision

 

[reefer999]

Those Aussie Rainbows are absolutely amazing.

 

[trinidiver]

WOWWWWW.............I never knew there were that pretty

 

[ktg113]

Nice stuff I am working on getting my acans to grow I had a nice rainbow one but we moved tanks and we had a spike and I lost it

 

[coralsnaked]

I also have an affinity for acans. I once saw some of the most beautiful ancan gardens on a dive in the Coral Sea. It was on the Fairway Reef at the southern end of the Lansdowne Bank. Nothing in nature is as colorful as the propagated aquacultured varieties that exist, but when you see colonies extend for beyond your vision field it is awesome.

 

[drtrash]

how do you keep the color? Most of mine have morphed and not sure how to get the color back. I have moved mine into the sheade but not sure what the secreat is

 

[brannock_16]

Hey All Delight,

You truly have one of the greatest collection of acan lords I have seen, and I truly envy your collection! As an acan connoisseur myself, I applaud your ability to retain those rainbow colors.

Of the 35+ acans I own, only a handful have retained that "rainbow" coloring (some of which came from you!).

Keep updating this thread so those of us afflicted with an acan addiction can continue to get our fix.

Robert

 

[All Delight]

Great pics. I love acans, too.

Thank you. Yep I love em' too.

Beautiful pics, I am just starting to get into acans.

Thanks and glad you're into acans as well. I don't know why I like em' so much.

Those Aussie Rainbows are absolutely amazing.

Thanks.

WOWWWWW.............I never knew there were that pretty

Yeah the Aussie ones are amazing.

Nice stuff I am working on getting my acans to grow I had a nice rainbow one but we moved tanks and we had a spike and I lost it

Aww man I hate to hear of losses like that. Hopefully you come across another one to purchase. As you already know, they are pretty.

 

[All Delight]

I also have an affinity for acans. I once saw some of the most beautiful ancan gardens on a dive in the Coral Sea. It was on the Fairway Reef at the southern end of the Lansdowne Bank. Nothing in nature is as colorful as the propagated aquacultured varieties that exist, but when you see colonies extend for beyond your vision field it is awesome.

wow!! I can only imagine what that woulda looked like.

how do you keep the color? Most of mine have morphed and not sure how to get the color back. I have moved mine into the sheade but not sure what the secreat is

Most of my luck in keeping these colors are from buying established acans. You pay more for them, but at least you're not risking your purchase on newly imported ones. Also, keeping them under T5's help to maintain the colors as well. From my experience in buying newly imported rainbows is they will typically morph if they're gonna morph within the first few months. After that you may see subtle shifts in colors but orange rainbows usually won't turn all orange. As far as regaining the rainbow colors, ime once they're gone, they don't come back. Not for me anyways.

Hey All Delight,

You truly have one of the greatest collection of acan lords I have seen, and I truly envy your collection! As an acan connoisseur myself, I applaud your ability to retain those rainbow colors.

Of the 35+ acans I own, only a handful have retained that "rainbow" coloring (some of which came from you!).

Keep updating this thread so those of us afflicted with an acan addiction can continue to get our fix.

Robert

Rob, Thanks man! I know you got some beauties for sure! 35+, that's more than what I have now. I reduced my collection due to the sps addiction I have too. LOL

Hopefully this will give you your daily fix.

Neptunes Crown 2.0

 

[iamwrasseman]

ADelight , i got hit hard by disease when i had a few hundreded acans and frags and lost somewhere in the neigborhood of 10 to 12 thousand dollars worth of lords and assorted lps . it was later erradicated with interceptor but that was after i lost 95% of my collection . with i had the nads to do it again and if i did every single one would be QTed for a few weeks in interceptor .~lesson learned at a great expense ~!
also i have been watching you awesome collection expand for a while ,congrats on a great collection and best wishes too !

 

[Nwest]

Wow I am speechless at your collection. I myself am up to about 13 frags right now of acans. Any pointers you can give out? Mine are all located on the bottom of the tank and seem to be doing good. Just could always get better. Also mind saying where you have purchased some of your pieces?

 

[All Delight]

ADelight , i got hit hard by disease when i had a few hundreded acans and frags and lost somewhere in the neigborhood of 10 to 12 thousand dollars worth of lords and assorted lps . it was later erradicated with interceptor but that was after i lost 95% of my collection . with i had the nads to do it again and if i did every single one would be QTed for a few weeks in interceptor .~lesson learned at a great expense ~!
also i have been watching you awesome collection expand for a while ,congrats on a great collection and best wishes too !

Oh man that's horrible! :sad2: I'm sorry to hear the loss in value, but I'm sure it was the loss of your collection you were more sadden with. Trying to rebuild a collection is difficult especially when you have lost some pieces that you find irreplaceable. I'm sure you're on your way to recollecting again.


I've been hit in the past too, a couple years ago, it would be very strange randon colonies would start to receed, sometimes slow (1/4" a month), sometimes fast (1/2" a day), I would dip them in tropic marin pro coral cure, and sometimes it would stop or slow down. On fast receeding corals, there was no hope, only to frag the colony and try to salvage some frags.

Thank you for the kinds words on my collection. If you ever wanna trade lmk. I'm always looking to expand

 

[All Delight]

Wow I am speechless at your collection. I myself am up to about 13 frags right now of acans. Any pointers you can give out? Mine are all located on the bottom of the tank and seem to be doing good. Just could always get better. Also mind saying where you have purchased some of your pieces?

I bet you have a nice collection yourself! Pointers....I know they hold their colors much better under t5's. Bluer the light the better. Not saying to run all actinics, but closer you get to 20k spectrum the better. As far as holding colors, some of it has to do with luck, because some of the newly imported acans lose the rainbows and turn all orange or all red. For the most part I keep mine in lower light. I have found some of them can handle a lot of light so those are in the upper part of my tank. As far as purchasing, I've gotten some from a sponser on here, Cherry Corals. Others I find from other reefers on the board, either I buy from them or a I trade with them. The nice part about buying from someone on the board is you're most likely getting an established one which will reduce the likelyhood of them morphing. However, Cherry Corals farms some of them so it's the same principle.

Here is an example of what a difference lighting makes. I ran 20k MH for 6 years and I switched to ATI powermodule slightly over a year ago. I now run an ATI powermodule 6x24. But because the lighting is so strong I only run 4 bulbs. My bulb configuration is 3 ati blue plus and 1 kz purple.

Under 20K MH

Under T5

 

[Psirex]

very nice collection