Acropora Night Time

[njmaddreefer]

Curious to know how to inspect Garf Bonsai coloration.

The lighter coloration is more apparent lights off or in white light at the base.

The acro looks nice in blue light.

Picture below is the same acro under blue light vs nighttime no light. The base looks really bad at dark.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

So... the one on the right is with a flashlight?
TBH it looks like a wild colony (left)

 

[bluemon]

So... the one on the right is with a flashlight?
TBH it looks like a wild colony (left)

to be fair, a lot of the wild acropora colonies would look a lot prettier under the artificial lights that we put our coral under

 

[njmaddreefer]

So... the one on the right is with a flashlight?
TBH it looks like a wild colony (left)

So... the one on the right is with a flashlight?
TBH it looks like a wild colony (left)

Thanks for the quick reply! On my phone the post shows as top and bottom not left right.

Yup same colony and the crappy pic is just the colony with room light. Nicer pic is under 23K.

I got this coral from a local seller who sells out of his garage. He charged me 100 bucks for it and said it was a Garf Bonsai. I’m new to the hobby (6 months in) so I didn’t really appreciate wild vs aquacultured differences when I bought it.

How can you tell it’s a wild colony and not an aquacultured Garf Bonsai?

 

[bluemon]

Thanks for the quick reply! On my phone the post shows as top and bottom not left right.

Yup same colony and the crappy pic is just the colony with room light. Nicer pic is under 23K.

I got this coral from a local seller who sells out of his garage. He charged me 100 bucks for it and said it was a Garf Bonsai. I’m new to the hobby (6 months in) so I didn’t really appreciate wild vs aquacultured differences when I bought it.

How can you tell it’s a wild colony and not an aquacultured Garf Bonsai?

It’s definitely aquacultured.

I think @TangerineSpeedo was just referring to the fact that it looks so different under no/natural light.

Most of the SPS corals you will buy will be aquacultured. 100% if it’s named ones. There really isn’t much benefit to buying or selling wild colonies unless you re really deep in the hobby and want to take gambles on new strains.

 

[Red_Beard]

Nah, that is pretty normal. Makes it way easier too inspect them like that at night too. Any tissue loss or ailment shows up way better and is easier to spot.

 

[njmaddreefer]

Nah, that is pretty normal. Makes it way easier too inspect them like that at night too. Any tissue loss or ailment shows up way better and is easier to

Just to clarify: You think it is normal for the base to look paler than the tips in dark light?

 

[bluemon]

Just to clarify: You think it is normal for the base to look paler than the tips in dark light?

Yes,

There is a higher concentration of zooxanthellae (the symbiotic photosynthetic dinoflagellate algae that corals use to survive) will be in higher concentrations towards the top where the light is.

With some species, you will even see dead skeleton at the base

 

[Red_Beard]

Just to clarify: You think it is normal for the base to look paler than the tips in dark light?

Yes, very normal.

 

[DanyL]

Most acros look pale/washed out under room light, and it is even more pronounced when grown exclusively under heavy purple/blue spectrum, where other wavelengths aren’t stimulated at all, or stimulated a lot less then the purple/blue wavelengths.

For acros like A. Valida (aka “Bonsai”), given that it has primarily blue/purple color, it can stand out even more - so it’s completely normal.

 

[njmaddreefer]

Awesome! This was all very insightful. Thank you