Aquascene Ice Fire Echinata

[KIKe]

Abe is doing well, I keep in touch with him alot. Living life, while we stress about corals while he no longer has to XD

Oh he quitted? That was sad.... Is he going to come back later?

 

[coral reeftank]

Bag secured! Not the OG aquascene, but an echinata nonetheless!

Can’t wait to let this thing blossom!

 

[386reeftrader]

Bag secured! Not the OG aquascene, but an echinata nonetheless!

Can’t wait to let this thing blossom!

Goodluck with that! Echinata are one of the coolest acropora, imo. I had a nice one a few years ago, could’ve been speciosa but I always thought it was echinata. Hoping some of these oldschool species start to cycle back into the hobby

 

[rxx2]

I've been looking for the aquascene icefire as well. Difficult to find. I ran across Jeremy Hale from exoticfrags. He hasn't seen one in a long time. I would love to get a frag! Also of a simplex. Here's a couple pics from back in the day.

 

[rxx2]

 

[Troylee]

I had the grafted simplex many years ago!

 

[coral reeftank]

I had the grafted simplex many years ago!

Same! What an awesome piece

 

[Perry]

Been searching for Dustins Deepwater for about 15 years, probably the most elusive piece that I have never been able to put my hands on. Had the JF Purple Blade Simplex which actually gave me Dustin vibes. Lost it, so did AV99, ugh... Anyways if someone finds the ORA Dustins Deepwater, you have found the "ONE" IMO...

 

[Mike A]

Vividaquariums has frags available.

https://vividaquariums.com/collecti...cropora-echinata-coral?variant=40819828490325

 

[mfollen]

Jump to 4:28 for some solid ice fire grown by Chris @ ACI and captured by Jake.

This is one of my more favorite acro videos throughout the years. Very well grown and very well produced!

 

[therman]

You probably all saw my old Aquascene Icefire colony I presume. It grew from 2010-2018. I miss that coral. It took a downturn after the squamosa spawned and died in 2018. I kept trying Icefire frags from a local friend who got it from me for the next few years but couldn't get it over about baseball sized before it crashing again in 2024. He lost most of his massive colonies in the past year but has one little piece left.

Here's some nostalgia photos:

It started from this in Jan 2010. I paid $50 for it:

 

[mfollen]

Amazing growth and colony. Unfortunate ending but that’s reefing, if it can go wrong it will. Thank you for sharing Tim! That’s one of the best aquarium colony pics I’ve ever seen.

 

[386reeftrader]

Agreed, that's one of the most spectacular colonies I've seen in a tank.

 

[JBNY]

No nearly as large as therman's but such a cool coral. Here is is from my tank old a while back

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[coral reeftank]

Anyone still have one?

 

[djf91]

I have a small frag that is growing. This came from a larger frag I hacked up when it started to STN. The other smaller frags also STNed except for the one that is still growing down low in the middle of my display. Not sure what it likes about that spot but it likes it. This came from a wild Australian colony.

 

[therman]

Anyone still have one?

My friend still has one piece of the Aquascene/Tyree piece that he got from me. I might get a little nubbin from it to see if I can repeat my experience from years ago.

I do have a chunk of a standard blue/white Australian wild echinata too, just got it recently at a stupid cheap price from AquaSD. It survived dips and quarantine and looks happy-ish but has a loooong way to go to be anything to marvel at :) They do still come in wild from Australia pretty regularly. Getting them to survive, grow, and be fragged and shared is a different thing entirely.

 

[djf91]

My friend still has one piece of the Aquascene/Tyree piece that he got from me. I might get a little nubbin from it to see if I can repeat my experience from years ago.

I do have a chunk of a standard blue/white Australian wild echinata too, just got it recently at a stupid cheap price from AquaSD. It survived dips and quarantine and looks happy-ish but has a loooong way to go to be anything to marvel at :) They do still come in wild from Australia pretty regularly. Getting them to survive, grow, and be fragged and shared is a different thing entirely.

Do you think there’s a reason people have less success with them today?

 

[coral reeftank]

Do you think there’s a reason people have less success with them today?

Personally I believe it’s related to nutrition given how voraciously my current piece responds to feeding

 

[Big E]

Do you think there’s a reason people have less success with them today?

The Aussie Ice Fire Echinata has always been difficult. It took me about 5 tries to get a frag to live and grow past a few months and that was back in 2010.

Once it got growing it grew like a weed. I bet I cut off a couple dozen frags off my colony. Had it for about 4 years before I lost it. I bought 3 wild frags, 2 for me and 1 for a friend in '24. Mine both died, his is about a 4" colony.

My original colony-- top down

side shot