Alexraptor
Well-Known Member
Thought it might be interesting to share the different color morphs I've seen from one and the same montipora. 
One of my first and oldest SPS corals was a yellow Montipora digita, that's been with me for most of my years in the hobby. Unfortunately I had some setbacks a few years back, which over time led to the death of the mother colony and every frag in every system i had.
Back in 2014 I had traded away a frag which produced a still extant daughter colony, and I got in touch with the owners and was able to obtain a couple of frags from the daughter colony, being able to re-introduce it once more. And this is where things get interesting.
The original mother colony, back in 2014. Lighting was a Hagen 2x24w T5 fixture, with a Power-Glo 18000k light and a Marine-Glo.
One of the frags I picked up this week. Unclear exactly what lighting it has been subjected to, but has definitely been living under LED lights the past year.
It's hard to believe that they are of the same colony. Yet I am absolutely certain of, simply by virtue of having produced color morph trending in that direction.
My high-nutrient 10G Mandarin tank received a frag that took on very strong solid greens under 2x39w T5's. I don't remember quite what type of tubes were used.
The mother colony core was sadly wiped out in a full-scale tank crash somethime around 2015, but at least parts of the colony could be saved, even if it was not for long. This photo was taken in 2017 with the colony growing under a Maxspect Glaive Marine 40W LED light. At this time, the base tissues had started to shift towards a deep red, the very same reds seen in the frag I received this week!
Just thought it was pretty cool to be able to document such radical change in a single genetic line of coral, over the span of nearly a decade.
One of my first and oldest SPS corals was a yellow Montipora digita, that's been with me for most of my years in the hobby. Unfortunately I had some setbacks a few years back, which over time led to the death of the mother colony and every frag in every system i had.
Back in 2014 I had traded away a frag which produced a still extant daughter colony, and I got in touch with the owners and was able to obtain a couple of frags from the daughter colony, being able to re-introduce it once more. And this is where things get interesting.
The original mother colony, back in 2014. Lighting was a Hagen 2x24w T5 fixture, with a Power-Glo 18000k light and a Marine-Glo.
One of the frags I picked up this week. Unclear exactly what lighting it has been subjected to, but has definitely been living under LED lights the past year.
It's hard to believe that they are of the same colony. Yet I am absolutely certain of, simply by virtue of having produced color morph trending in that direction.
My high-nutrient 10G Mandarin tank received a frag that took on very strong solid greens under 2x39w T5's. I don't remember quite what type of tubes were used.
The mother colony core was sadly wiped out in a full-scale tank crash somethime around 2015, but at least parts of the colony could be saved, even if it was not for long. This photo was taken in 2017 with the colony growing under a Maxspect Glaive Marine 40W LED light. At this time, the base tissues had started to shift towards a deep red, the very same reds seen in the frag I received this week!
Just thought it was pretty cool to be able to document such radical change in a single genetic line of coral, over the span of nearly a decade.
