How to tell if a coral is dyed a different color?

CoralManz

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glad to see you got a refund
 
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JAMSOURY

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put mine in a quarantine tank to observe them. Polyps been out and it’s been looking healthy but as others posted above, rubbed it with paper towel and some of the color rubbed off. I got both the black and blue one.

with the black one, even the polyps are black
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Kaiser

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Nice work on the DIY home chromatography!

Anyone name the wholesaler yet? I will say that Quality Marine is *not* carrying these dyed garbage corals. Where are they coming from? I didnt spot them at SDC last time I looked either.

When a fraudulent product is being sold in the hobby, we should name names. Its likely there are only a small number of exporters shipping these and a small number of wholesalers selling them to LFS. Who are they?
I can attest to both these wholesalers not carrying them, I would periodically (about once a week) drop by before corona and currently spend a lot of time on their websites. I have not seen these corals or any other dyed corals at either wholesaler.
 

IKD

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We know @BSA has sold them. They posted about it at then end of June. would have to ask them who their supplier was.

 

TriggerFinger

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There’s a couple blues posted on a LFS Facebook page, came in this weeks coral shipment.

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Darren in Tacoma

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How does the LFS not know they are dyed? Did they not have blue fingers after handling them like the hobbyist? I would have a lot of questions before letting them off the hook.
 
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Tennyson

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Hi everyone, I got refunded! All but 2 of my frags have died. The two survivors are still pretty sick. I'm keeping them around for testing and ultimately trashing them.

A few hobbyists and I are working on getting some MS (mass spectrophotometry) analysis done on the blue sun coral pigment, and also publishing a report for all of the findings. Its also possible that authentic blue/teal sun coral exist, apparently they were collected from the Solomon Islands in the 90's but it became illegal in 2002. If these do exist, they are extremely rare, unlike the fake blue/green suns that are flooding our LFS today.
 

IKD

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Hi everyone, I got refunded! All but 2 of my frags have died. The two survivors are still pretty sick. I'm keeping them around for testing and ultimately trashing them.

A few hobbyists and I are working on getting some MS (mass spectrophotometry) analysis done on the blue sun coral pigment, and also publishing a report for all of the findings. Its also possible that authentic blue/teal sun coral exist, apparently they were collected from the Solomon Islands in the 90's but it became illegal in 2002. If these do exist, they are extremely rare, unlike the fake blue/green suns that are flooding our LFS today.
Glad you were refunded!! And thank you for all of this work and investigation. It’s people like you that keep this hobby honest and truthful and therefor enjoyable. I hope vendors will read this thread as well and do their own questioning of their suppliers
 

aidz415

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I got two colonies of the blue and teal sun coral...As everyone has said the blue rubs off onto your fingers. When I first saw this I wondered the same thing about it being dyed...as I was handling the coral I also notice that scratched and chips made it turn white. Anyways that was three months ago. White chips and scratches now blue or teal again. Not as bright blue or teal as I first got it tho. Babies are even popping out.

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JAMSOURY

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I got two colonies of the blue and teal sun coral...As everyone has said the blue rubs off onto your fingers. When I first saw this I wondered the same thing about it being dyed...as I was handling the coral I also notice that scratched and chips made it turn white. Anyways that was three months ago. White chips and scratches now blue or teal again. Not as bright blue or teal as I first got it tho. Babies are even popping out.

2DE9BE44-A332-44F6-8E17-5FE4337A6BD1.jpeg D4847140-F2A9-4BBC-8559-FE18BD65FB09.jpeg EB893DA8-39F0-4372-B73B-B0BF6DF1FDCD.jpeg 46F0C8C7-172B-442F-BCFE-190C8994698A.jpeg
Anyone think it’s possibly just how the flesh is and kind of comes off? Anyone try this with the regular orange ones yet?
 

JaimeAdams

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Nice work on the DIY home chromatography!

Anyone name the wholesaler yet? I will say that Quality Marine is *not* carrying these dyed garbage corals. Where are they coming from? I didnt spot them at SDC last time I looked either.

When a fraudulent product is being sold in the hobby, we should name names. Its likely there are only a small number of exporters shipping these and a small number of wholesalers selling them to LFS. Who are they?
I can attest to both these wholesalers not carrying them, I would periodically (about once a week) drop by before corona and currently spend a lot of time on their websites. I have not seen these corals or any other dyed corals at either wholesaler.
Y'all need to either look at the eye it and buy it sections or pay attention more.

Yes, they have been dying anemones and coral for years. There are posts saying that these are real and the baby polyps carry the same coloration. I have not personally ordered any nor have I seen them in person. I have seen them offered for sale at the largest marine wholesaler in the US. If they tell the LFS that they are not dyed and the LFS passes that on to the hobbyist, and truth be told maybe the exporters are telling the wholesalers that they aren't dyed and maybe even the collector is telling the exporter the same. At which point along that supply chain are you all putting the blame?
 

Still_human

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Supporters of the blue sun coral are saying that black sun coral stain too. This is true, you can rub a black sun coral and it will come off.

But after doing this myself, it appears that black sun coral pigment is actually just concentrated yellow/ brown pigment.
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Black sun corals are definitely real(at least branching black) and even Black/green ones that are so dark they’re almost black. I’ve even seen Black/red so dark it’s almost black. those are just variants of black sun corals, cause those still have black, but either the base, or the polyp nubs(I don’t remember which) are slightly lighter, and have a green or red tint. I’ve only seen them a few times from liveaquaria/divers den, so I believe they’re real. Partly cause I trust them 100%, but part cause the color was so slight, if someone was going to go to that much trouble, they’d probably make more of it colored, or more noticeably colored.
 

Still_human

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Anyone on this thread have a buddy scientist that works in a chromatography lab? A spectral analysis of the bluish or greenish dye might indicate a cheap, easily obtainable dye such as methylene blue or malachite green compound. On the other hand, if the dye is a synthetic ink of some sort (there are many such inks) then a crime would be difficult and expensive to prove.
I would think Specifically meth blue, and mal green would immediately kill the corals. Medications with the tiniest % of those chemicals with kill corals in days to as little as hours, so they definitely shouldn’t last weeks/months.
 

TerraFerma

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Its impossible to defend a store/person selling a dyed sun coral. But....I haven't seen these things come around for a very long time. They were extremely common in the early 2000's and were not expensive. If people weren't around in the early 2000's and knew these were dyed, I can see how someone might get excited about a blue sun coral and not know any better. All kinds of crazy colored corals come in nowadays that are not dyed - some unscrupulous exporter just tried to slip these things into the mix.
 
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Tennyson

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Some updates. Still waiting to hear from a friend who sent his for testing at a scientific lab.

One of my frags I've been observing was expelling green waste, similar to what sun coral do when they're sick. These sun coral still haven't ingested any food, and I've never fed them anything green. So my theory is the coral is doing all it can to remove the green dye from its body.
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Sea Dwelling Creatures also has a ton of these for sale. They're selling as "Forest Green Sun Coral" on page 11, and theres 52 of them for sale. Vendors were once calling these extremely rare, and now dozens are suddenly being imported? Many of them also have mesenterial filaments like mine had, a sign of disease.
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duberii

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pieces of the ocean had some of these for sale for $50- it was only one head, but some places sell the yellow/orange ones for that price. I was pretty surprised to see them at that price. Logic tells me that over time, more growth (if the coral gets to that point) would at least decrease the concentration of the pigment in the coral, assuming the coral is unable to produce those pigments. I doubt any new polyps would magically be back to the original color, rather you would slowly see the pigment spread out over time, so the coral would eventually revert to its true color- This is all speculation though.
 
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