Cap change color?

[Everyones Hero]

I have a 75g w/ T5 lighting. A few months ago I bought several corals (mostly caps) from another member & I've had good growth so far.

One of the caps had green polyps when it came to me & those are still green. It's growing well but all of the new growth is red. The pics of the mother colony he sent me were green.

What would cause this to happen?

It's hard to get a good pic of the tops because of the lighting but this is the best I could get with the phone:

 

[anathema]

congrats on getting a piece of the rainbow montipora. Nice piece.

 

[trwells]

Defective. I'll take it.

I'll PM my shipping address.

 

[Tater11]

it could be a number of things.different water paremeters lighting ect.those aren't caps they are encrusting monti's.they look great i would say it's the lighting.

 

[anathema]

The only thing I see that makes me worry is they are pretty close together. It's common in new tanks to mount a bunch of cool corals very close to each other, but what do you do when they grow into each other and go to war?

 

[redfishsc]

Two encrusting montis of the same species and color variations, like you see in his pic, aren't likely to fight-- they'll graft into each other, becoming one big colony.

 

[Everyones Hero]

I looked through the thread of the person I bought them from & I believe it's the Original Poker Star from GCarroll. The seller's pic is mostly green but parts of the mother colony look to have a little orange/red in them so I duno.

The only thing I see that makes me worry is they are pretty close together. It's common in new tanks to mount a bunch of cool corals very close to each other, but what do you do when they grow into each other and go to war?

What redfish said- it's the same coral. I received several pieces of the same coral so I mounted them on the same rock so it would *hopefully* grow into one piece. All of the different corals I received are on different rocks spread through out the tank.

Tater- thanks on the heads up. I figured all of the plate-like montis were called caps. I just thought it was really odd that a coral would go from green to red, especially with the polyps I was sent still being green.

trwells- try again in about 6 months.

I think I'm going to PM the person I bought it from & ask him if the same thing happened to him.

 

[Tater11]

Two encrusting montis of the same species and color variations, like you see in his pic, aren't likely to fight-- they'll graft into each other, becoming one big colony.

i agree.let em go and see what happens.

 

[Everyones Hero]

I came up with a theory as to why it turned red. It's angry. It's angry because I made the green acro the center piece & it's off to the side.

Since it changed colors for me does that mean I get to name this morph myself?

 

[MechEng99]

Rainbow Montipora has new growth with red polyps, and as the polyps age (and new growth appears), the polyps turn orange, then yellowish, then finally green (hence the name - rainbow). If the colony has not grown recently, it's common to see the colony with all green polyps. In fact, eventually the majority of the coral will have only green polyps with a rim of "rainbow" polyps.

 

[craps_dealer]

I have had Superman frags go from red and blue to purple and gold and back to red and blue over the course of a few months. And frags from the same colony in same tank just keep original colors.

 

[Everyones Hero]

Really? That's awesome. So is it probable that it is a rainbow monti & not the poker star? The person I bought it from said that it was weird & possibly lighting/water parameters so I don't think he had the same experience with it.

 

[NaClCrocodile]

I thought I was the only one. I got a purple cap from a friend. Lost it for about a month. Found it and it was a brick red color with green polyps (sweet!). Different tanks, different colors I guess.