Stunning Red Plate Coral from Roc Citi Coralz

We love plate corals. They aren’t exactly a rare type of coral, but they certainly don’t dominate the scene either. This especially holds true when they have such awesome colors like the one pictured above, originally posted by Roc Citi Coralz over on Reef2Reef. As if red plate corals weren’t already hard enough to obtain, this particular individual sports a marvelous highlighter red center and rim, along with hints of purple and the occasional speck of neon green (when looking at up-close photos). Most solid red plate corals come in at a price point around $500 and climbing, depending on the size and vibrancy of course, but this colorful and rare beauty actually sold very recently for exactly that with free shipping to boot.

Another image can be seen below.

Tyree LE Montipora Undata

A decade ago, coral naming was mostly limited to the select high-end pieces that showed up on a coral vendor’s doorstep once in a blue moon. At that time, most coral enthusiasts were just using names that described a particular coral’s color and type, for example green button polyps. Guys like Steve Tyree had the high end coral market cornered and tagged their best pieces with the “Limited Edition” moniker, among other wordy descriptors. Despite what the coral looked like, this technique obviously drove up coral prices and inflated the coral’s appeal among hobbyists. This developed long waiting lists for hard to get corals, and those who grew frags out themselves were making a killing. Eventually, every livestock vendor and casual hobbyist caught on to the trend and started naming corals themselves, going so far as to even rename the already named corals they just purchased to indicate that it was theirs. The goal of course was to make a coral seem more important than it actually was, and nowadays it’s almost impossible to find a coral that doesn’t have some wild name.

Don’t let this article fool you. We aren’t railing against the art of coral naming. We still enjoy a good coral name and we also feel that some corals are so colorful that they almost require a fancy name. However, we also feel that with all of the coral naming taking place, the names are starting to lose their significance. After all, even the most mundane of corals are getting their own exclusive name and everybody is adding Tyree’s naming scheme to their own livestock to get fellow hobbyists to pony up a little more cash for each frag.

Another drawback the the massive influx of all of the coral names is the fact that the original pieces that started the coral naming game have become lost in a sea of ugly and fast growing corals. It should be noted that most of the “LE” pieces were limited due to their extremely slow growth rates. Unfortunately, many folks have corals that remind them of these once rare Tyree pieces, so they start calling their coral by that name as well. The corals aren’t even close to being the same, and most likely don’t even have the same lineage, but that doesn’t stop the naming process. This takes away from the exclusivity of the original coral and a lot of hobbyists fall into the trap that they are buying a rare coral, when in fact they are just buying a more common coral that has a fancy name.

ORA Sprung's Stunner

Wrapping up our rant, shouldn’t a prerequisite to getting to name a coral be a long standing and well respected presence in the hobby? People like Steve Tyree and companies like ORA have been in this industry a long time and have both contributed tremendously to the advancement of the hobby. In our opinion, they have earned the right to name their livestock simply for the fact that they’ve made the corals their own. ORA aquacultures thousands upon thousands of frags per month. They typically find a wild coral with an unusual color and grow it out, taking their time to find out what parameters and lighting give these corals the best coloration and growth rates. They don’t hack up colonies into tiny frags only to sell these fresh cut frags on the online or local aquarium markets.

And even though mom always told you to never judge a book by its cover, we actually want to emphasize this approach when it comes making coral purchases of your own. Don’t give into all of the hype behind a coral’s name. Focus on how the coral appeals to you visually. Who cares what the name looks like if the coral is butt ugly? Once you spot a coral you like, then decide how well it fits into your aquarium scheme. Do you have the appropriate equipment and husbandry techniques to house the particular coral you’ve just fallen in love with? Will the coral thrive in you aquarium? These are the questions you should ask yourself when making a purchase instead of focusing on how much you could get once you start fragging it and how much more you could make by giving it a weir name.

We’re not exactly the biggest fans of green corals, but for this amazing plate coral we could certain make an exception. Right around a week ago, the Puerto Rico-based coral retailer Efrain Corals showed off their amazing Nightmare Plate Coral that sports a deep green hue with a vibrant rainbow colored rim and blue stripes. The mouth, which appears to be smiling back at you, is glowing neon yellow and contrasts sharply with the green backdrop. An official size hasn’t been listed for this coral, but using the ruler under the coral for reference, the coral is mostly likely pushing 2.5″ across. The retail price on this amazing plate coral is set at $450 shipped to your door, though that price appears to be somewhat negotiable. And ever though the Nightmare Plate coral is listed as a Fungia, it is most likely a species from the Cycloseris genus.

We’re sort of on a Cycloseris kick at the moment, so it’s no surprise that our latest AquaNerd Picture of the Week is full of the stunning plate corals. Seen at MACNA, these cherry pieces are some of the best plate corals we’ve ever seen. You’ll notice that, with the exception of the orange plate, all of the corals have contrasting tentacle and plate coloration. Most Cycloseris offered in the hobby are bright orange, but every once in a while online retailers get their hands on some unusual looking pieces like the ones seen above. Unfortunately, the red plate coral, considered by many to be the holy grail of the plate coral world and personally one of my favorites, was absent from MACNA. But that should come as no surprise since they are so rare and pricey.

Rainbow Plate Coral from ReefKoi Corals

On the random occasion, coral vendors come across premo livestock that deserves to be gawked at. They use their social outlets to show off their latest and greatest acquisitions, which usually includes rare fish and unbelievably colored corals. While doing my normal reef related forum browsing, I came across such livestock, but it wasn’t limited to just one vendor. Over on the Reef2Reef forums, multiple vendors have been showing off insanely colored LPS corals that include a rainbow plate Coral from ReefKoi, a giant multi-colored chalice from Bay Corals, an “Axe Murderer” Favia from AquaSD, and an orange frogspawn from World Wide Corals…and these were just a few of the amazing corals on display. If you’re a coral junkie like us, be sure to stop by each of the online aquarium vendors and check out their obviously eye-catching corals.

Axe Murderer Favia from AquaSD

Rainbow Chalice from BayCorals

Orange Frogspawn from World Wide Corals

During my typical evening perusal of the multitude of aquarium forums, I stumbled across this stunning Lobophyllia coral on Reef2Reef. Aptly named the Rainbow Jawbreaker Lobophyllia, this coral obviously has some sick coloration. The “lobo” has been under the care of AquaWorld PSC for a little over a month, and after considering keeping the coral from themselves (a notion I can completely sympathize with), the coral retailer has decided to make it available to the rest of the aquarium community. The coral is a little under 2″ in diameter and has been soaking up light rays from a ReefTech LED lighting system. It gets fed Fauna Marin LPS Color+Grow pellets, which has become quite a popular fish food among LPS keepers.

If you’re curious about the name, the guys at AquaWorld PSC thought say the two-part name for this coral comes from the amazing myriad of colors that appear like layers of a jawbreaker. As for the price, the bounty on this stunning piece is $450 shipped.

Special thanks to Jeff from AquaWorld PSC for sharing this beautiful coral with us.

We at the AquaNerd Blog truly appreciate jaw dropping corals, and the coral above does nothing but wow. The crew at Roc Citi Coralz recently shared this image of a convict chalice lookalike. The coral doesn’t have the vibrant orange bumps that the original convict chalice has, but its colors are so mesmerizing that it had to be designated a name. So, the New York-based coral e-tailers dubbed the “Con Artist” chalice, which is quite fitting if you really think about it. The Con Artist has similar jagged pinstripes as the convict chalice, but it’s a completely different coral, a con artist if you will. There’s no information on pricing or availability for this stunning chalice, but we expect a typically one-eyed frag to fetch several hundreds of dollars.

ORA has unleashed an exciting new coral onto the reefkeeping hobby. Their new ORA Purple Undata, a Montipora species of course, is all purple…base, polyps, everything. And apparently ORA has been sitting on this coral for a few years, since they first acquired it way back in 2008 from a European hobbyist. It’s neither here or there, but why does it seem all of the European hobbyists get all the good stuff?

As with all frags from the world famous aquaculturists, the new ORA Purple Undata will be approximately an inch long/wide and will come attached to either a cement and aragonite frag disk.

Official ORA Purple Undata web release seen below.

The ORA Purple Undata is a brightly colored encrusting / plating Montipora. The polyps of this coral are small, purple in color and lightly scattered between the coenosteum ridges. The Purple Undata grows into a thick, dark purple plate with a light purple edge. This is a fast growing coral that thrives under a wide range of lighting conditions. Under intense lighting, this coral’s coloration can take on a blue hue that really stands out. We have been working with this coral since 2008, our original piece came from a European hobbyist.

Frags will be approximately 1 inch and will come attached to a cement/aragonite disk.

By now you’ve all seen the stunning “Incrediscoly” from Cherry Corals. Well, the coral retailer isn’t done showing off their amazing Scolymia collection. Just a few days ago they shared images of their new “Incrediscoly 2.0″, along with multiple other breath taking Scolys. The new Incrediscoly isn’t quite as beautiful as the original, but the combination of all green, orange, red, and yellow is still eye catching. In fact, this new coral sold within a matter of hours to the tune of $1000. Personally, I’m not sure if I would be able to sell a coral this beautiful. I’m not knocking Cherry Corals, but these gems seen below don’t come around very often and I think I would go into hoarding mode.

Keeping reading below for images of a few more stunning Scolymias, including my favorite of the bunch, simply dubbed “Masterpiece”.

Cherry Corals Agent Orange Scolymia

Cherry Corals Mean Green Masterpiece Scolymia

Cherry Corals Masterpiece Scolymia

Even though we’ve used the Tyree Montipora undata in a previous Picture of the Week, we couldn’t pass on sharing this one as well. The M. undata pictured above is a striking piece. The coral’s white polyps contrast sharply with the tan base and purple growing edges, and it’s honestly surprising that a predominately tan colored coral can look so great. And many hobbyists share this opinion of the coral, especially when it looks like the individual shown above.