My One "Rareish" Coral

[Nikon_Guy]

This is a Cyphastrea occellina. It is an encrusting type of coral that spreads over neighboring rock as it grows. What makes this one special to me is the pink center to the orange/red polyps and the fluorescent green skin below.

It is typically a slow grower, but at the rate it has shown lately I am hoping to be able to get a frag off of it in a few more months.

 

[Azurel]

That's sweet......I really like those too...I didn't realize they were in-crusting, I thought they were a plating type coral....

 

[JGoslee]

What type of flow and light is it under? I think I'm going to be ordering a frag of these pretty soon. They are really cool looking.

 

[jafoca]

That piece reminds me of the "Reefready Astreopora" found on reefready.net - just yours is red and theirs is blue.

I seriously need to save up some cash for a reefready order...
Your coral is super nice.

 

[Nikon_Guy]

What type of flow and light is it under? I think I'm going to be ordering a frag of these pretty soon. They are really cool looking.

When first acquired, thinking that because it was an SPS, it should be positioned under high light and high flow. Although it did ok, it didn’t flourish. After talking to a few people and doing a bit of research, I found that it really prefers medium light and medium flow. Being as the frag was mounted to a rather large piece of live rock and had already started encrusting the rock I didn’t want to move it. Instead I fashioned a couple of pieces of screen door screen and positioned it between the lights and the coral to shade it a bit. In addition a piece of rock was placed between it and the flow to lessen the flow a bit.

As you can see, it has really taken off growth and color wise since this was done.

Here is a picture of the original frag.

 

[Nikon_Guy]

That piece reminds me of the "Reefready Astreopora" found on reefready.net - just yours is red and theirs is blue.

I seriously need to save up some cash for a reefready order...
Your coral is super nice.

Thank you very much.

I believe the specimen I have was fragged from a piece originaly aquired here:

http://www.reeffarmers.com/limitedcyphastreaocellina.htm

 

[jafoca]

crikies... reserved through 2009!

Has yours ever had the blue background?

 

[Nikon_Guy]

Mine exhibits an intense fluorescent green background. It is tough to see in the mother colony as the polyps are spaced closer together and open really big. It is easily seen on the new growth though.

I have a feeling that the blue that is on the Reef Farmers piece is due in part to the 20K MH they are under. Those give off a fair amount of blue spectrum.

 

[MATIBY]

Wow your frag has really taken off, I didn't notice the other part in the background.

I purchased a 1" 5 polyp frag from Atlantis last month.
I was looking for a Cyphastrea Ocellina.
But not sure which of these I picked out.
It's starting to spread down the rock and looking more teal and seeing another polyp growing out.

I'll try and post a pic, though it may look crappy.

Pix from AtlantisAqaurium.net
http://www.atlantisaquarium.net/index.html

Cyphastrea Ocellina

Meteor Shower Cyphastrea Ocellina

 

[jafoca]

So is this coral rareish because the species is not collected or the color morph?

 

[Nikon_Guy]

So is this coral rareish because the species is not collected or the color morph?

I refer to it as “rareish†because my tank is full of mushrooms, rather plain zoanthids and palys compared to what folks here have, some leathers and a couple of monti caps. This is the one coral, except maybe for the Turbinaria.sp and a dendro that I have, that I seldom see available on the net and have only once seen a few small frags of in a LFS. Compared to all the “common†coral in my reef, this one is pretty rare.

You are right though, I don’t think it is widely collected by hobbyists either. Could be because of availability or popularity. I do however think also that some of the different color morphs are less available than others.

 

[Nikon_Guy]

Wow your frag has really taken off, I didn't notice the other part in the background.

I purchased a 1" 5 polyp frag from Atlantis last month.
I was looking for a Cyphastrea Ocellina.
But not sure which of these I picked out.
It's starting to spread down the rock and looking more teal and seeing another polyp growing out.

Do the polyps look pink or orange/red?

Nice purchase either way!

Where is it located in your tank Light/flow wise?

 

[Nikon_Guy]

This picture was taken with the 14K MH's on. It shows the "skin" color much better than the overhead flash without actinic suplimentation.

 

[msman825]

looks great looks like it spreading good also for you

 

[jafoca]

Can you place a beer can next to it for size reference? ;P

more seriously, how big is the frag?

 

[Azurel]

That's even nicer then the first pics.....

 

[ficklefins]

Wow, that is one cool coral! I don't care if it is rare or not, it is cool looking.