biggles
Premium Member
I commonly grab browned out or bleaching SPS from my LFS for the simple reason that i know the collectors harvest only nicely colored corals so i figure the chances are high that the ugly dying coral was eye catching to the collector at the time he harvested it. I bought the monti below (4"x3") 2 weeks ago and it was faded rusty red, very light in color well on the way to bleaching with zero PE and the LFS dumped it for $20- after having it sit idle for a month.
It's been sitting on the bottom with zero PE ever since but has slowly shifted color to a pinker hue so i was happy thinking i might end up with a nice 'pinkish' monti. Turned the lights on today and i see PE at last and to say i'm pleased with the color of the polyps is an understatement :celeb1:. Pic taken under 250W radium only with no touch ups other than cropping and resizing.
In short, if you get the chance to score a cheap SPS that isn't in good shape due to your LFS not being able to keep them healthy long term think about taking a chance on the coral because no collectors harvest ugly brown or bleaching SPS. No idea what the monti is as i have only ever had a brown cap years ago.
It's been sitting on the bottom with zero PE ever since but has slowly shifted color to a pinker hue so i was happy thinking i might end up with a nice 'pinkish' monti. Turned the lights on today and i see PE at last and to say i'm pleased with the color of the polyps is an understatement :celeb1:. Pic taken under 250W radium only with no touch ups other than cropping and resizing.
In short, if you get the chance to score a cheap SPS that isn't in good shape due to your LFS not being able to keep them healthy long term think about taking a chance on the coral because no collectors harvest ugly brown or bleaching SPS. No idea what the monti is as i have only ever had a brown cap years ago.