Acropora Spathulata

I have not seen a spath with polyps that stick out much at all, mostly they seem to stay close to the coral body. But doesn't mean it doesn't happen, I would love to see pics of a fuzzy spath.

Mine is super fuzzy. It was even hairier before a flame angel got to nibbling on it. But that was months ago.

8" under water and directly under my Radion. The light is 10" off the water.
 
Brown green, slowly turning pink as it grows.
 

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I purchased a 1 inch frag in October. after a month in quarantine where it promptly browned out. it went into my display. By now the color is doing better (pink with green highlights but still not completely colored up) and growth is great. This coral started encrusting almost immediately. after 6 weeks in the display it has fully encrusted the rock its on.

Here are the conditions it is kept in:

Light- a foot under 250W Radium 20,000k PAR about 250

Flow- very brisk. water turns over about 60 times per hour. Sits on top of reef ledge where four return lines hooked up to a sqwd spray it with alternating currents. also close to a vortech set on alternating currents

Water parameters- Normal. Sg 1.026, Cal 340 ppm, Alk 11DKH, Mag 1350ppm, pH 8.05-8.2, temp 76-78.

This is a 60 gallon tank that receives very heavy feedings (3-4 times daily) of fresh seafood run through a blender and 30 gallon water changes every 1-2 weeks.

Hope this helps.

Any pics?
 
Do you mean this one mate, pretty sure it's a milli.

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This was that other one btw when i first got it as a little brown turd.

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Biggles, is this the same colony you have pics of in your build thread? The one that was really light, almost bleached out?
 
Mine double size in a less then a year..grow well but loose some colour smooths..
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february 14

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november 14
 
Nice piece zon :D

I have what I think is the Same piece, it came from oz as a 'homegrown frag' but looking at the shape of it I'd say it was a wild colony fragged down. In any case it didn't come bleached out and is the purple colour with sort of pinky white coralites. It's actually doing quite well. I'll try and get a couple of pics up.

I also have a yellow piece which had pink tips. This browned right off and wasn't happy anywhere I tried it. I have now fragged it down after some aefw problems. The frags are only a week old but there's some yellow there.

They really are nice though, but I have heard they are hard, I'd guess that due to the shape of them they are shallow water stuff wanting good flow and light, the frag I have which is doing well is in high light and pretty high flow...

I also heard there's actually only 3 or 4 types. Anyone confirm that?
 
Biggles, is this the same colony you have pics of in your build thread? The one that was really light, almost bleached out?

Yes it is mate. The metallic green with blue/purple/pinkish tips is one of the most commonly collected acros i see. It's the same species/color morph acro as Zon has and most likely all the other ones sent to the US. That acro is collected in waist deep water and is hard to hold true colors on as you can see by Zon's browned out one. I'll show what it's supposed to color up like in a month or two as mine is just starting to settle in.

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Same colony after three days under my tank conditions - light shock paling.

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Just starting to regain pigments - these acros are just as spectacularly colored as any other acro if you give them the conditions they require.

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Biggles
Where in oz are you? Reason I ask is because it's interesting for me to see that a newly acquired acro you have is bleached out and has to regin pigment. In the uk here pretty much every oz acro comes very very pale, they do though seem to do well at holding the original colour, but with more pigment. I think everyone here puts it down to shipping.
However for all I know it might not be that far from reef to your tank. Have you been diving over there? Do the corals look bleached on the reefs?
 
wow, those are just fantastic colonies. 1 of my little pinky tip size numbs is starting to show hints of color again, its on the sand bed, although at about 250par. The other 2 nubs are about 6 inches higher, and are still just brown.

now that I know they come from waiste deep water in the wild, I am seriously considering moving it up the top of tank, right under the radiums
 
I'm in Melbourne mate but i've done the whole GBR dive thing a couple of times back when i didn't have so many aches and pains and other than much paler pigmentation most acros you are seeing are the true colors of the coral but very washed out from stress. I grabbed these pics off the FB page of my LFS and they show similar acros being unpacked so prob 2-3 days off the GBR.

I saw and had to ignore this colony a while back simply because it was too big for my tank. Even washed out it was pretty hard to ignore.

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My piece being unpacked about a week before i bought it.

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I tried to correct the white balance a bit on the LFS pic so you could see what i saw in real life looking at it under gen 2 radions and why i bought it. If you do the same to the blue washed out FB pics you can see the beautiful colors much better.

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At other times i see lots of the more open branched variety as Zon posted a pic of when he first got the piece. The colors are the same but i always suspected that the open growth ones were collected in either deeper water or way less flow than some of the others.
 
Interesting stuff. I'd love to visit the gbr but it seems most is only accessible by boat, no house reef type places. I will go one day, went fiji last year and the acros.....:frog:

What sort of money are those pieces put of interest, generally an oz colony here is around £140 so I think exchange rate would make it around 300aud. Some are a bit less and a few a bit more but average around that.
 
The one i left behind was $70- and the one i bought was $60-. The smaller pieces are usually about $40-. Everything is pretty much between $40 and $70- unless it's something with one off standout intense colors and might go for up to $90-. Doesn't matter what the type/species generally, the colors determine the price not the growth patterns.
 
WOW, thats incredible prices. they are a lot more here. the large frag I posted was in the $100 range, but I cant remember exactly.
 
This is a beauitful coral, the only person who manages to colour them up is Biggles...unless he is photoshopping and videoshopping :lol:

I had a piece of this coral early last year...was bright turquoise...turned brown in my tank initially and then started to colour up. I lost it in the great STN event of my tank latter last year.

I am going to try another piece and this time really blast it with light to keep it from turding up.

Biggles, I'm coming to Australia next year...get your diving gear ready...we are going to the GBR...no lame excuses about aches and pains. :p
 
I know the prices are very cheap compared to the overseas prices but can i tell you that most of the Aus stuff i see on overseas online stores are better colored even un-photoshopped than what i see in our LFS's. The best stuff goes to the buyers who pay the best prices i assume.

I had a fiddle with your pic to see the colors better so sorry if it's way off but i don't think it is........

I would pay more for that small branch colored like that than anything i posted pics of including the one i bought. I have never seen anything approaching that violet/purple in the last two years. I'd drop $100- in a heartbeat for something as special as that mate - i'm bloody jealous lol.

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I grew this guy out from a .5" nub in March 2012...only to watch it and a few others stn in February 2014 :(. I really miss it.
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