New purchase....WOW is all I could say

[Azurel]

I just by chance got these at the best LFS around Kalamazoo for zoanthids. The owner said check these out they call them RPEs....I didn't think they were going to be what I saw....I debated for about five minutes and said" Scr3w it, you can bag them"....They get some really nice zoanthids but these have been the best I have seen locally in years...

I will get a better pictur here in the next few days....What do you zoaheads think?

P.S.
No frags for awhile as this isn't a massive frag itself......someday though...

 

[majestic sea life]

look like RPE's to me.

 

[Azurel]

I was thinking more along the lines of these RPEs....not quite so vivid and deep in color as the new ones....That's what surprized me a bit.

 

[Reef Junkie]

Very nice Azurel!

 

[skippy2]

Could you post the name of the store, please. Those zoos are beautiful. My son lives in Kalamazoo and could pick some up for me. Thanks.

 

[gflat65]

I've seen both of the reds labelled RPE's, but I tend to go more with the ones you posted second, Azurel. The ones on the new 'RPE' rock are something different than I've seen.

 

[Azurel]

They definitely blow the second ones out of the water as far as richness of color....

 

[Pazazz]

Nice find!!!!

 

[ecotoxlady]

Awesome!

 

[TypeSH]

I kind of like the ones next to the RPE.
Do you have more pictures?

Thanks,
Sam

 

[oceana]

nice find

 

[Azurel]

I will get more pictures of these in the next few days as they become more acclimated to my system and brighter lighting.

 

[Zoalander]

Which LFS, I might have to make the drive up to Kalamazoo.

 

[copps]

While it's always tough to tell the numbers of varieties of certain similar corals, there's a clear dichotomy between the two "RPEs" mentioned above...

I have two pieces of the first one that is just stunning really... better than the pictures. On www.zoaid.com it is closest to "Orange People Eater" as it has the green mouth surrounded by a beautiful PPE purple... then a metallic red on the outside... not really orange at all although the pattern again is similar to that OPE on zoaid. Here's a shot of one of my pieces...


The other mentioned variety lacks the purple edging around the mouth and the color does not compare as shown above... this is the one listed on zoaid as RPE...

Anyway, these are very sweet Protopalythoas... for comparison under the same lighting (250 20k radium under Diamond Lumenarc) is a shot of one of my Blane Perun PPE frags... Ask your wives/girlfriends which they like better for an unbiased answer and I'd bet the RPE/OPE might win out!


For comparison here is a shot from Zoaid of an OPE colony...

 

[EricBrian]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7239265#post7239265 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by copps
While it's always tough to tell the numbers of varieties of certain similar corals, there's a clear dichotomy between the two "RPEs" mentioned above...

I have two pieces of the first one that is just stunning really... better than the pictures. On www.zoaid.com it is closest to "Orange People Eater" as it has the green mouth surrounded by a beautiful PPE purple... then a metallic red on the outside... not really orange at all although the pattern again is similar to that OPE on zoaid. Here's a shot of one of my pieces...


The other mentioned variety lacks the purple edging around the mouth and the color does not compare as shown above... this is the one listed on zoaid as RPE...

Anyway, these are very sweet Protopalythoas... for comparison under the same lighting (250 20k radium under Diamond Lumenarc) is a shot of one of my Blane Perun PPE frags... Ask your wives/girlfriends which they like better for an unbiased answer and I'd bet the RPE/OPE might win out!


For comparison here is a shot from Zoaid of an OPE colony...

Cool, Copps, where did you get yours?

 

[copps]

I did a trade on RC here for a couple of blues and safecracker frags with someone I think in Oregon... these were collected on Oahu in Hawaii by a buddy of the guy I traded with... the funny thing is that I travel yearly to Oahu and have since realized that you are able to collect the few soft coral varieties that Hawaii has as long as you don't take any rock... I meet with Charles Delbeek at the Waikiki Aquarium and he verified this himself (and for those of you who attended last year's MACNA I was the one who introduced him at his speech). I wonder if these all originated from Hawaii... Of course the collection of hard corals and live rock is illegal in Hawaii, although you could legally take one gallon of sand a day...

Needless to say, I'll be in Oahu in October and will be looking for these babies!

All who do have these please list the origin to the best of your knowledge...

Copps

 

[Azurel]

Hey Copps.....Good info I was thinking along the same lines are yourself....The two are really different and do not really compare in any manner. I would get the new RPEs I have long before the old ones, but I could get a colony of the old ones at the same place for 50 polyps for $20 bucks. So I couldn't pass that up either although I have seen both listed as RPE. The new ones are now about a nickel in size and the colored ones are a bit bigger then that. I am really quite surprised at how large they have gotten. Bring me some back from Hawaii.....

 

[copps]

I'll do that Azurel... luckily Oahu is one of the smaller islands so they should be easy to find...