What the big deal about PPE

[Crusty Old Shellback]

What's the big deal about them? One person put a name on them, called them rare, sold them in limited quanities and inflated teh price. So now everyone who has to have the latest fad, jumped on the bandwagon and kept the price inflated.

As far as the fakes go, I know there was some discussion a while back that unless you could specifically trace them back to the original that Blane brought in and sold, then they weren't PPE's. That has been a big probelm with a lot of the rare/Le monickers that have been put on things.

Who's to say that the original one brough in and named and tagged with a LE or Rare is the only one of it's kind in the ocean? May be the first one found and brought in to the trade, but I doubt it was the only one in the ocean.

JMO.

 

[gflat65]

blown63chevy,

I argued the same thing in a thread about a year ago. My argument was that even though someone took them from the ocean and gave them a name. If they were genetically different from all other protopalythoa's that have purple centers and green skirts/mouth slits, then it is truly a different coral. I use monikers as descriptions more than anything. If someone says PPE or RPE/GPE, etc., that gives me an idea of what it looks like. If the picture looks different than what I know to be PPE, then I know the person is mistaken (or being deceiving).

Elite,

You're right, they aren't just some old zoas. They're actually not a zoanthus species. They are protopalythoa. Here is an article I've been posting to show the difference between the different 'polyps'. Sprung does an excellent job at describing them and the pics never hurt.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2003/invert.htm

Seeing the difference between the different polyps makes it a lot easier to readily identify. This article seems to have it all listed out.

whodah,

I'm headed there next. Thanks for the thread.

 

[Reef Junkie]

Actually different frags look different in everybodys tank.
Ebay is not the place to go to get PPE's or any real pretty coral.

Only once in a blue moon do you find a steal on Ebay, otherwise right here is one of the best places to get really nice zoas.

Here is a recent pic of my PPE's. Curse you Jay! My PPE's grow as slow as Molasses going up hill on a cold day!

This guys is about the size of a nickle.

 

[tekknoschtev]

I fall into the category of people who has seen them in person, and was fascinated, but not moved to purchase any A local reefer to me had some in his tank, and while they were stunning, he had plenty of other things that I'd put out more drool for (and thats not considering the cost, most of the other stuff people would have thrown away in an attempt to get some PPEs). Thats not to say they arent a very interesting coral, just not up there in my book - and after you factor in cost, they dont even make the cut to be published in the book

 

[tomenugen]

Whats the big deal about them? Well, try finding them for sell is nearly impossible, even for the price. PPE are indeed rare by any coral standard. Just about anyone can cough up $250 plus for a small frag of the watermelon and watch it grown in less then 2 months to make their money back. PPE on the other hand takes so much longer to grow. And if you haven't seen the PPE, you will never understand the beauty of it.

 

[surfnvb7]

interesting article gflat, i remember reading about the differences a long time ago, but someone barrowed my books that i had and never returned them.

i do remember reading something, about which genus/species was supposedly more toxic than others...but cant remember which.

i really like Protopalythoa spp, better than the other genuses and species for some reason. mainly i like the ones with that green oral disc (aka the people eater). but the speckled ones are also really cool....they just have so much more "attitude" than normal zoanthids/palythoas.

 

[jay24k]

The place I got them from got the original ones so they are real. I will get a picture tommorrow if I'm able. I currently have a 4 inch border of corraline on my tank from me being so busy. I have to keep them low in my tank or they speckle from my halides. Pretty much any zoo in my tank will speckle if I place it up high. Kind of a PITA.

 

[jay24k]

I also agree. I honestly don't see why they are worth it. I paid 25 bucks for a single polyp. The first one died on me. They replaced it and it took a little while to start splitting. That pic under zoaid is under intense 20k. To me, under a 20k or a much bluer spectrum, they look sweet. Under 10K they are nice, but IMO I have better looking zoos.

Azurel,
You stop by when you are in florida and I'll hook you up

 

[raskal311]

yeah I notice most true purple sps or softy look more purple under 10k lighting.

 

[klese]

So, are the ones without the green skirt (all purple w/ neon green mouth) still consider PPE?

 

[Mr. Ugly]

PPE = Green skirt, purple center, green mouth.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6701050#post6701050 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by raskal311
yeah I notice most true purple sps or softy look more purple under 10k lighting.

Yeah, my purple edge caps show less purple under 14k compared to 10k

 

[jay24k]

A true PPE has the green rim, purple center(sometimes speckled depending on light intensity), and green mouth.

It looks the worse the whiter/yellower the spectrum and looks the best toward 20K.

Half of mine are speckled and the rest aren't. I had mine about 7 inches from surface being blast with 10K XM's. Now that I move them down, new ones are not speckled at all. Friends who also have gotten them where I did have no speckles at all but are running 14k and 20k.

In my experience, most speckled zoos are from alot of light. Generally, MH cause this. Not all zoos will do this but there is some that will. My true blues do not do this, but my larger polyp zoos seem to speckle if I have them directly under the MH.

 

[klese]

In my experience, most speckled zoos are from alot of light. Generally, MH cause this. Not all zoos will do this but there is some that will. My true blues do not do this, but my larger polyp zoos seem to speckle if I have them directly under the MH. [/B]

Ah, I see... now I know what happened to one of my frags. Thought it was sick.

 

[gflat65]

In terms of lighting, I am beginning to feel as though the lower K bulbs are best for sps, as they can make the color really pop (not fluorescent color, but actual out of the water color), but they don't do as much for softies and zoas (or some LPS for that matter). My zoas/protos have very little popping color under 10K's, but have great color under actinics (which is no surprise). I ran a 14K DE and my softies and lps looked great, but my sps started loosing color... I am using AB 10K 250W DE's, so hey are very yellow. I like how the sps are coloring up, but it does very little for my other corals. Sorry for the off topic...

 

[jay24k]

Here is a pic of mine. My pictures tonight seem to be washed out on all my corals. Took me 3 razor blades going dull to remove the corraline off lol. My whole back wall which some of you might have seen is pretty much completely scraped. It was a SOLID sheet of corraline with zero spots missing. My hand is hurting.

As you can see in the pic, most of the zoos are blurred out from the lens. Sigma macro isn't the best but it does decent. The speckled one is one of the ones that were directly under the MH. Up there it got really dull and ugly. The new offspring is looking much better.

 

[Reef Junkie]

Jay,
those look sick. You should send them to me for observation.

 

[whodah]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6705763#post6705763 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jay24k
Took me 3 razor blades going dull to remove the corraline off lol. My whole back wall which some of you might have seen is pretty much completely scraped. It was a SOLID sheet of corraline with zero spots missing. My hand is hurting.

AWESOME product - i highly recomend it!! i cannot emphasize it enough. u know how cool tivo is? that's how cool this is to scraping coraline off glass!!

http://www.oceansmotions.com/mag.htm

 

[jay24k]

Ok honestly now whoda.... Is it that good because if it is, I will buy it right now lol. I missed some spots. Being 6-3, I still can't reach the back of my tank lol.

Reef Junkie, when we do a swap, I don't mind tossing you a couple. You can kind of see the amount I have. There is a few on the back. I think I'm up to 15 polyps currently. Half are speckled. I'm gonna put some in my wife's nano and see if how they color up. It's just PC's.

 

[jay24k]

Now in your guys opinion, which looks better, the ppe or some nice blues!