ORA Pearlberry care/experience/placement

[dowtish]

This thread is being posted out of pure frustration. I have what seems to be a Pearlberry curse. It is one of my favorite acros, and yet I cant make mine happy. I acquired a piece early on that wasnt quite colored up, and it seemed to go dormant for about a year. It encrusted the plug, but had that drab grey color. I then acquired a nice colored up piece from a local friend and it got knocked off into the back of my tank never to be reached again. I then got another piece that was smaller but colored up nicely and in about 4 months now it has also lost its color and has the same drab coloration as the first frag. Then the original piece seemed to suddenly wake up and have great PE and started to color up. But then went right back to its ugliness. They are pest free. Both are placed up fairly high in the tank and in moderate to strong flow. ALL my other acros have great color and growth. I am seriously beginning to believe this is that one coral that I just cant have.

Please all Pearlberry owners: Tell me your experience and thoughts and comments on this beautiful coral. Anything at this point will help. And yes, feel free to post pics as it necessary to keep me jealous and inspired at the same time...

 

[dvanacker]

High flow and high light, good stable water parameters. Give it the most you got.

I got mine from a store that had it for a while and it was browned out. It took dang near a year for it to wake up, color up and grow. It does great now and is possibly my favorite acro. I would say they are sensitive to brown out and can go dormant but generally pretty hardy.

 

[blakers82]

I have grown out two colonies. The lower one gets a little more flow and little less light. It's the bigger of the two, but it started a bit bigger than the tiny frag I got for the higher colony. I think the higher one has better coloration and growth (think more spread) over all. You should be able to tell which is which from the pics. I've since moved my larger colony up in hopes it can create this "better" coloration. Keep at it. They can go drab. Mine are coming back from a little drab out. As you can see the tips are turning for the better. Just keep it rocking high flow and high light.

 

[stevedola]

Ive had mine up high (13-14" from my light) with moderate flow. I get good growth and color.

 

[jda]

Mine is about 5" under the water right underneath a 250W HQI with 14K Phoenix. I put the frag there from day one and it encrusted and colored up very quickly.

I have a wavebox, so tons and tons of flow by the coral, but not like most other tanks.

 

[dowtish]

I just dipped both frags in Bayer just to be sure there were no pests and replaced them in higher light and flow. There may or may not have been about 4 red bugs in the dip afterwards...

 

[stevedola]

be careful with stressing the coral with dip and then blasting it with light...it could bleach. I wouldnt do both at the same time. Just my opinion.

 

[dowtish]

Thats a good point, but I wouldnt say I'm blasting it with light. It only went up by about 3".