Where does the extreme variety of commercial corals come from?

[jonnybravo22]

Ok so I see some "common corals" at most retailers. These are the ORAs, the red planets, tri colors, millies, etc. Most of these have 1 or two, sometimes 3 colors. And they're mostly standard colors, greens, purples, some blues, a rare red.

However, I sometimes hear references to one site that has an extreme variety by comparison. Dozens of corals with pinks, three or four colors combined, and crazy names like "Leprechaun Pergatory", "Gilligan", "Space Ghost", "Rainbows Army", "Cream City Pinky" and "Bubblebath Unicorn". I don't care about the names, but the looks of these corals.

So are these guys just photoshopping / using extreme blue lighting or are these colors real, and if so, how do they get such novel color and growth pattern combinations while other retailers seem to have only more "standard" corals?

Are they sourcing some unique maricultured stuff? Even wild stuff I see in Great Barrier Reef videos don't match these corals to my eye but I've never seen either in person. Do you all know anything about how these corals come about?

 

[Pife]

Ok so I see some "common corals" at most retailers. These are the ORAs, the red planets, tri colors, millies, etc. Most of these have 1 or two, sometimes 3 colors. And they're mostly standard colors, greens, purples, some blues, a rare red.

However, I sometimes hear references to one site that has an extreme variety by comparison. Dozens of corals with pinks, three or four colors combined, and crazy names like "Leprechaun Pergatory", "Gilligan", "Space Ghost", "Rainbows Army", "Cream City Pinky" and "Bubblebath Unicorn". I don't care about the names, but the looks of these corals.

So are these guys just photoshopping / using extreme blue lighting or are these colors real, and if so, how do they get such novel color and growth pattern combinations while other retailers seem to have only more "standard" corals?

Are they sourcing some unique maricultured stuff? Even wild stuff I see in Great Barrier Reef videos don't match these corals to my eye but I've never seen either in person. Do you all know anything about how these corals come about?

The ocean.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Reefs all over the world. I have come to understand that Australia can now import to the US (I have been out of the hobby for a few years) so we are seeing some outstanding Aussi corals in the last few years. 5 6 years ago Assie stuff was fairly rare. But these sweet colorful corals come from all over the collectors are cheryy picking the best stuff since thats what we want.

 

[jonnybravo22]

Reefs all over the world. I have come to understand that Australia can now import to the US (I have been out of the hobby for a few years) so we are seeing some outstanding Aussi corals in the last few years. 5 6 years ago Assie stuff was fairly rare. But these sweet colorful corals come from all over the collectors are cheryy picking the best stuff since thats what we want.

Thanks for your reply. I have heard of Aussie stuff being nice. I guess the thing I don't get is if this stuff is out there why don't the big sites sell it? Never seen anything near this quality or variety on divers den for example. Do they not have access to the same distributors? And even then, why not just buy frags of this stuff and resell them vs selling the more bland stuff they have on there. Same stuff every week. (Not meant to be a knock on them, I order any online fish from them, and have gotten corals too, high quality packing etc).

 

[WLachnit]

Where does the extreme variety of commercial corals come from?

IME, some of the crazy colored frags become not as exciting in my DT. My belief is that has to do with flow, lighting, alk, trace elements, etc. Even in my tank, I have the same Acro in two different places, and one of them is very different coloration. The only difference would be flow and lighting. Just my .02

So is some of it due to different culturing conditions?

 

[jda]

They take the chance and import some wild stuff. If you go ahead and buy 50 wild acropora colonies, you will get one or two that are really special... but it might take 6-12 months for them to stabilize and get their captivity colors.

Fiji and The Coral Sea are great places for hard coral.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

We will start seeing more of theses super colorful sps and lps in the next few years I think. The prices should start to come down on the as well. I think places like DD, ORA, Cherry Corals ect are in fact importing these newer corals but they will wait to release them for sale. They want to ensure they survive, get a good mother colony growing then frag from that mother in large numbers, then wait for those frags to encrust color up and stabilize before releasing to the public. In the past I have bought fresh collected wild acropora and the colors would change and in most cases the coral would not survive, so coral retailers wan to ensure a healthy stock to offer.

 

[Piper27]

The really nice colored maricultured corals right now are not everywhere because they have cought on to the fads and half inch fragging that goes on and hold all the very nice stuff back and add it to boxes as one or two per box. There are some culturing sites that only culture really high end stuff but it's priced that way as well, per box. A lot of these places that have crazy colors cherry pick constantly or order lots of corals and keep the best and sell the rest. I am not so sure about to many of the commercial sellers are holding back coral to make sure they grow before sales. This only happens when a truly new piece is found which is not all that often for most vendors. I think they are more concerned about having their own stock and not concerned about how well they survive in the long run.
I do agree in a few years these prices will come down once a handful of better coral have been found and added into the culture sites stock list.
Be careful when looking through sites that sell these expensive colorful piecs, just because it's in the 300 dollar a mini colony section doesn't mean it's rare, it just means they got a very good picture in the right light. It takes a lot of buying, looking, and guessing to understand what a maricultured coral will turn out as. Most corals from these sites will change hue and it takes some experience to know what will be what in the end.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

No I did not mean dealers keep the corals to ensure they will survive and grow. I meant they keep the best ones to grow out and frag as some new designer coral with a crazy name.

 

[Moort82]

Some of the crazy colouring is just shown in small parts of the coral like the tips. This can be from stress and is a reason why frags are made so small, as the rest of the coral is more natural. It's also a good reason to not splash out massively on a coral that will likely change in the near future.

 

[kevlow]

First I would like to state that I run a very basic set up with more white light then dealers use in the shop and show displays. I also do not have a real camera, or good photography skills. I do get some good colors in my acros and an area dealer and a private collector [with many designer pieces] like to trade with me. I have been amazed when they place my stuff in their system under their lights at how great they look. Sometimes, after several months, they don't look as good as when they first came from my tank. Conversly, the same holds true. Often their great stuff does not look as good after time in my tank.

Over the holidays I made a day trip to a well known dealer/grower/importer. I will leave the name and coral names out of this. I purchased several nice pieces and a dealer specific designer coral. Spent more money then I normally would but I figured I was treating myself. When placed in my system they did not have the incredibly fine variations in color. They were very healthy but bland. My stuff looks better and brighter.
Later at night when the room was dark, I turned down my my whites, upped the blues and violets. I put on the orange glasses like they gave to me in the display room. And there were the light color variations that I saw in their display.

In the dealer's display there was no photoshop, just lots of blue and violet in a darkened room. Reminded me of the 1970's with dark rooms and black lights shining on wall posters.

I would like to cut some frags of my stuff and display them in their show tanks. I believe they would be just as beautiful. Maybe even deserving of designer names sold as "private in house morphs".

I still think that fully saturated Red Planets and Oregon Torts will catch your eye from across the room before the latest multi colored designer pieces.

Clearly some corals are more beautiful and colorful then others. But I have learned that if I want a piece to look exactly like it did in the show display then I would need to reproduce the exact same conditions inside and outside the tank.

 

[outssider]

turning whites way down and blues and violets way up makes the crappiest coral look like a million bucks....

 

[ali1]

photoshop. take the same frag - place it in 10 different tanks - never can replicate.

 

[jonnybravo22]

Thanks for the input folks. I realized after posting that this thread has a terrible title. It wouldn't let me edit it when I tried previously but now it did. What I was trying to get at is why some vendors are able to show pictures of what seem to be amazingly colored corals while other large well known vendors don't seem to display the same variety and intensity in their stock. Wondering if it was a sourcing issue or a 'presentation' issue, and perhaps the maricultured or wild sps on sale at larger vendors are in fact these same variants. I've gathered a bit from responses here, but still interested if anyone has other insight into the differences.

 

[ali1]

90% presentation issue, 10% sourcing. There are still decent honest vendors out there. Vendors can make GSP look like a $230 piece and call it WYSIWYG

 

[therman]

I know the vendor you are referring to very well. His variety comes from years of collecting/cherry picking wild pieces from a few importers, running them through the ringer of quarantine, and carefully cultivating what survives and is worthy of his brand. It is a distinct collection with many unique pieces...maybe not unique in that others may have acquired the same coral at the same time, but unique in that he took that wild piece, got it over the hump of acclimation to captivity, and grew it to the point of it regaining its full glory again in the form of a captive grown colony.

They do not look like his photos when imported, but he has developed an eye for potential in wild pieces, and takes the time to grow them out to regain their potential.

He has an extremely high reputation among vendors and is more up front about his photography than any other coral vendor or perhaps even hobbyist on the internet. You can learn a lot more from another forum where he is a sponsor.

Hope that helps.

 

[jonnybravo22]

I know the vendor you are referring to very well. His variety comes from years of collecting/cherry picking wild pieces from a few importers, running them through the ringer of quarantine, and carefully cultivating what survives and is worthy of his brand. It is a distinct collection with many unique pieces...maybe not unique in that others may have acquired the same coral at the same time, but unique in that he took that wild piece, got it over the hump of acclimation to captivity, and grew it to the point of it regaining its full glory again in the form of a captive grown colony.

They do not look like his photos when imported, but he has developed an eye for potential in wild pieces, and takes the time to grow them out to regain their potential.

He has an extremely high reputation among vendors and is more up front about his photography than any other coral vendor or perhaps even hobbyist on the internet. You can learn a lot more from another forum where he is a sponsor.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for your input! Does help me understand a bit why he can have such crazy stuff and others don't if it's about a longer process that requires time and skill to cultivate.

 

[happyhourhero]

Thanks for your input! Does help me understand a bit why he can have such crazy stuff and others don't if it's about a longer process that requires time and skill to cultivate.

There are some recent videos on the you that highlights his systems and the forum where he sponsors has a lot of his stuff explained in threads there. He is by far my favorite to order from. Mainly because you can say I want to spend xxx. please surprise me and he blows you away.