Bleached Bird of Paradise Recovery

[israel.kendall]

I was recently given a bleached BOP that has now colored up quite a bit. The base of it turned a peach kind of color and now it's starting to turn more yellow.

I'm wondering if this is the normal way for it to color up, as in should the base have just turned green, or is it normal to go peach to yellow, then green maybe?

Also, what is the best level of lighting for this coral to get the nice green base from it?

Here are a couple of pics (everyone loves pics, right?)

January 24:

February 14:

 

[SPSEMPIRE]

Give it some time and you will start to see white bumps from the new growth. The BOP will grow up more before it will really encrust onto the rock work. I can tell that it is encrusting on the plug, so that is a plus.

 

[chuckreef]

These like low light. MY colony is on the sand bed and looks great. Under high light they get less green in the coenosarcal tissue and have more of a pale purple cast to them.

 

[ChicagoReefOne]

Not trying to contradict but I have mine right below my 150W MH and they love it--consider your light source first.

Watch your NO3 with this one.

 

[israel.kendall]

Thanks for the replies, so would you guys say that the yellow base color is telling me that it's getting too much light? It's approximately 8" away from 4x54w T5.

 

[chuckreef]

For reference, I run a 10 bulb powermodule on the tank with this coral.

 

[ChicagoReefOne]

I would say it's looking pretty darn good from the 2nd photo... If it were me I'd just let it be, you're getting growth and color. The subtle color variations (and yeah I can kinda see some parts are more yellowish than green, but some greens look really good) may be a result of your specific tank chemistry, again I wouldn't worry about it too much. One thing I've learned about SPS is the more you move and tweak position the longer it takes.

 

[tmgrash]

I thought BOP was yellow with purple polyps? Mine is anyways, its beautiful.

 

[Acrotrdco]

I thought BOP was yellow with purple polyps? Mine is anyways, its beautiful.

It is yellow with purple polyps, but sometimes under certain lighting condition the base may look greenish.

Here's my frag:

30.9.2010

21.10.2010

17.1.2011

30.1.2011

 

[Gyr]

I got a tiny nub of a bleached white frag of BOP several months ago. I have it in the lower third of my tank, off to one side of the tank (a relatively low-light level in my system). It took quite a while to color up, but now the polyp extension is so dramatic that it looks solid purple except for the pale yellow growth tips. It seems that once it fully encrusted the plug its growth and coloration really improved.

 

[SPSEMPIRE]

if you are talking about the ORA birds of paradise acropora, the original picture in the first post is a 100% accurate.

Acrotrdco, your birdsnest is very likely an ORA but isn't the BOP, looks like there purple polyp pink birdsnest.

 

[israel.kendall]

I would say it's looking pretty darn good from the 2nd photo... If it were me I'd just let it be, you're getting growth and color. The subtle color variations (and yeah I can kinda see some parts are more yellowish than green, but some greens look really good) may be a result of your specific tank chemistry, again I wouldn't worry about it too much. One thing I've learned about SPS is the more you move and tweak position the longer it takes.

I think you're probably right on moving SPS making things take longer. I will keep it where it is now for another month or so to see what happens. Then if I still don't get the green perhaps I'll try moving it down.

 

[israel.kendall]

I thought BOP was yellow with purple polyps? Mine is anyways, its beautiful.

I think a lot of them are yellow, but IMHO what they are known for, and originally sold for is the green base with purple polyps. This is the reason I wanted one anyways and my goal is to bring out the green base.

Here's a good link on the BOP:
http://www.oracorals.com/ora-bird-of-paradise/

 

[israel.kendall]

It is yellow with purple polyps, but sometimes under certain lighting condition the base may look greenish.

Here's my frag:

Looks like it's growing nicely!

 

[israel.kendall]

I got a tiny nub of a bleached white frag of BOP several months ago. I have it in the lower third of my tank, off to one side of the tank (a relatively low-light level in my system). It took quite a while to color up, but now the polyp extension is so dramatic that it looks solid purple except for the pale yellow growth tips. It seems that once it fully encrusted the plug its growth and coloration really improved.

I read that some people put their BOP in higher flow in order to reduce polyp extension so they can see the color of the base. From what I have read this did not seem to impede growth, just changes the growth pattern a bit.

 

[israel.kendall]

if you are talking about the ORA birds of paradise acropora, the original picture in the first post is a 100% accurate.

Acrotrdco, your birdsnest is very likely an ORA but isn't the BOP, looks like there purple polyp pink birdsnest.

I think you made a typo, the ORA Bird of Paradise is a seriatopora, not an Acro.

 

[fishieness]

Acrotrdco, your birdsnest is very likely an ORA but isn't the BOP, looks like there purple polyp pink birdsnest.

And that is absolutely a Bird of Paradise. The green is faded but shows up more later on.

 

[SPSEMPIRE]

I think you made a typo, the ORA Bird of Paradise is a seriatopora, not an Acro.

Correct, my mistake.

 

[SPSEMPIRE]

And that is absolutely a Bird of Paradise. The green is faded but shows up more later on.

Okay great. I can see more green in the last picture but the ora bop has always grown thicker for me. Could easily just be different growth patterns from being in different systems.

 

[israel.kendall]

Okay great. I can see more green in the last picture but the ora bop has always grown thicker for me. Could easily just be different growth patterns from being in different systems.

I tend to agree, in my non-expert opinion. It looks a bit thin and pointy to be a BOP. In the first two pictures he posted, the coral on the left side of the frame looks more like the thickness and bluntness of a BOP.