Pink Scolymia

[maui-reefer]

Greetings everyone. One of the local reef stores has a nice Pink Scolymia. This particular coral is somewhat white/clear below a beautiful pink highlights. My question for you is.. will this coral retain this color or will it revert to a more brownish red in the future?

Thank You in advance,

Tony

 

[Hormigaquatica]

Sounds like it stressed out for some reason and bleached. Assuming it survives the process, the coral will likely wind up a much darker red once its healthy again.

 

[chrisstie]

Without seeing a picture of it it is near impossible to tell the future.

Some LPS can have a transluscent look to them depending on the species, color, lighting etc, but most scolymias I have seen are very vibrant. My guess is that it would color up over time as these corals don't usually have white\clear tissue but probably not to a brown color, hopefully a very striking red.

 

[JazzZero]

I think so i also have seen some thing like what you have mentioned and those are awesome and i think they do stay the same color

 

[seapug]

Are you sure it wasn't a pink Cynarina? They tend to have more translucent tissue and come in more pastel colors. Here's a pink one I recently picked up:

 

[maui-reefer]

Pink Scolymia

Thank You for the comments. I am going to try take a picture of the Pink Scolymia and post it for your review. FWIW, the tank labeled the coral as a "Pink Scolymia". The tissue was fully extended.

Tony

 

[Duce]

It could be bleached....

 

[Sheol]

I have a pinkish/orange one. There is no gaurantee any coral will hold its color when moved to a new tank, though.

Matthew

 

[maui-reefer]

All:

Thank You for your assistance. Please look at my photo gallery. I took a couple of pics of the coral in question at the LFS. According to the owner, the coral you see has been in this tank for about one month withVHO lights. He told me that he believes this is the color of the Scolymia and is not bleached. The tissue on this coral appears to fully extend.

What do you think?

Tony

 

[GoingPostal]

That looks bleached to me but it's not the clearest picture, it looks like you can see right through it.

 

[chrisstie]

IMO one month isn't enough time for a large bleached coral to recover. It is just my personal opinion, but I have to express it- that is DEFINITELY bleached. If kept under VHOs, well, doesn't help the pink tint much either.

I would think it would recover to a beautiful red, though

 

[Hormigaquatica]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11847986#post11847986 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by maui-reefer
All:

Thank You for your assistance. Please look at my photo gallery. I took a couple of pics of the coral in question at the LFS. According to the owner, the coral you see has been in this tank for about one month withVHO lights. He told me that he believes this is the color of the Scolymia and is not bleached. The tissue on this coral appears to fully extend.

What do you think?

Tony

Without a doubt, that is a bleached Cynarina (not a true Scolymia). Luckily, they are very easy to target feed usually, so as long as you keep it pumped full of food chances of recovery are pretty good. Expect it to take several months though- 1 month is very unrealistic.

I agree with chrisstie though- it should color up to a very nice red.

 

[seapug]

Hormigaquatica, what makes you think it's a Cynarina and not a Scolymia? I know some varieties are very hard to tell apart so I'm just curious what made it obvious to you, because that one looks like a Scoly to my confused eye...

 

[Hormigaquatica]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11852151#post11852151 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by seapug
Hormigaquatica, what makes you think it's a Cynarina and not a Scolymia? I know some varieties are very hard to tell apart so I'm just curious what made it obvious to you, because that one looks like a Scoly to my confused eye...

The high arch from the center of the polyp to the 'top' of the wall before the tissue falls back down to the sand; indicates pretty large septa. True Scolymia that make it into the hobby are virtually never that defined- they tend to lay much more flat. The vast majority of corals labeled "Scolymia" are actually Cynarina IMO. Admittedly, there is the chance that it is Scolymia australis, but it looks too pronounced to me for that even (plus australis is usually pretty small compared to the apparent size of the coral in the picture). Youve probably seen the bright green/red Scolymia that are coming out of Australia lately going for like $300. If you get to see one of those in person, its a lot easier to appreciate how shallow a true Scolymia usually is compared to Cynarina. HTH...

 

[JUICE!]

Here's what healthy scolys look like

~D

 

[seapug]

I have a bright red one that I purchased as a Scolymia that has very different tissue and vescicles than the pink Cynarina I posted above. It's what I use as my way of differentiating them. So what do you think-- Scoly or a Cynarina?

 

[maui-reefer]

I would like to Thank everyone for their imput. The consensus is that the coral (Cynarina/Scolymia) is bleached.

Tony

 

[kraze3]

little off topic but what kind of lights do these guys do well under?

 

[seapug]

they actually prefer relatively subdued light and flow.

 

[Hormigaquatica]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11854355#post11854355 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by seapug
I have a bright red one that I purchased as a Scolymia that has very different tissue and vescicles than the pink Cynarina I posted above. It's what I use as my way of differentiating them. So what do you think-- Scoly or a Cynarina?

I would call yours Cynarina. The bubble-type tissue youre looking at on the 'standard' Cynarina is whats usually referred to as Cynarina lacrymalis. The one that you have would likely be Cynarina deshayesiana. A really nice looking one at that *drool*

(Note that some old texts refer to "Acanthophyllia deshayesiana", which was then considered by some to be a synonym for Cynarina lacrymalis. Many now view A. desh. to be a synonym for C. desh, which is a distinct species from C. lacrymalis.)

HERE is a link to an article by Julian Sprung that gives an overview of Scolymia vs Cynarina vs Acanthophyllia vs Indophyllia .

Sorry for pulling the thread off track...