ORA

NickC · Mar 5, 2019

So My lfs told me they were going to be placing an order with ORA in a couple of days and if I wanted anything they’d tack it on the order. I’ve been out of the game for awhile, but they had some of the best “designer” acros back then I remember.

I’ll only get a couple since the tanks pretty new, but not sure what they’ve got these days. Their website has some of the old classics, but it seems a lot are either currently unavailable or no longer available. What gives? No oregon tort, chips, or pearl berry for example.

I’ll probably grab a red planet, is there anything else that’s a standout? If so, anyone have some colony pics? Seems like a lot of their stuff is tan/brown with some shade of purple or blue tips.

SeaDweller · Mar 5, 2019

Yep. OG OT, RP or the classic classic pearlberry.

I have this Laura’s purple polyp. A favorite of mine.

Charlie’s Frags · Mar 5, 2019

Laura’s purple polyp is a winner winner, and it grows crazy fast. Can’t go wrong with joe the coral or Hawkins echinata either. I have a bunch of high end tenuis but no one notices them. Everyone, not in the hobby obviously, loves the gorgonian, the zoas and the echinata.

NickC · Mar 5, 2019

Their site says the pearl berry, Oregon tort, and chips etc are unavailable. Is that just bad timing on my part, or did they lose their stock? Seems like they lost a bunch in a hurricane years back.

I’ll have to check out Laura’s purple, got any more pics of it?

SeaDweller · Mar 5, 2019

NickC said:
Their site says the pearl berry, Oregon tort, and chips etc are unavailable. Is that just bad timing on my part, or did they lose their stock? Seems like they lost a bunch in a hurricane years back.

I’ll have to check out Laura’s purple, got any more pics of it?

I find a true pearlberry is difficult to come across nowadays. Many people just don’t have it for sale. It’s truly a favorite of mine. I had a piece in which I lost a couple of years ago.

I’ll try to get a better pic of LPP

NickC · Mar 5, 2019

TitanCi said:
I find a true pearlberry is difficult to come across nowadays. Many people just don’t have it for sale. It’s truly a favorite of mine. I had a piece in which I lost a couple of years ago.

I’ll try to get a better pic of LPP

That’d be great, thanks. Pearl berry is one of my favorites, its too bad I was really hoping to get one of those. I used to have a beatiful colony way back when.

Anyone ever have any good luck with their Marshall island Mari stuff? The blue bottle brush looks nice on the site.

golfer88 · Mar 5, 2019

ora has gone down hill over the years especially since named corals became common imo.

jda · Mar 5, 2019

They still have all of those, but in short demand and they usually only sell to the stores who places the hugest (is that a word?) orders. Very hard to get.

Luckily, you can get all of this from other reefers for pretty cheap.

IMO, all of their corals look better in person than on their website - I am not sure what they are doing there.

Hawkins, Miami Orchid (beginner), Cliffs, Chips, Red Planet, Cali Tort are all good starter acropora. If you have a small tank, stay away from the Miami Orchid or other stags since they grow so fast.

S-t-r-e-t-c-h · Mar 5, 2019

FYI, Live Aquaria has a pearlberry and a joe the coral now:
https://www.liveaquaria.com/divers-den/product/452485/ora-pearlberry-acropora-coral

https://www.liveaquaria.com/divers-den/product/452484/ora-joe-the-coral

Bpb · Mar 5, 2019

jda said:
They still have all of those, but in short demand and they usually only sell to the stores who places the hugest (is that a word?) orders. Very hard to get.

Luckily, you can get all of this from other reefers for pretty cheap.

IMO, all of their corals look better in person than on their website - I am not sure what they are doing there.

Hawkins, Miami Orchid (beginner), Cliffs, Chips, Red Planet, Cali Tort are all good starter acropora. If you have a small tank, stay away from the Miami Orchid or other stags since they grow so fast.

Don’t they take their pictures in a black view box under natural sunlight. Every picture of their corals is brown, but they look fantastic under artificial light. A correctly colored pearlberry or Hawkins are still in my eyes some of the most attractive corals to grace the hobby

jda · Mar 5, 2019

Are you open to ordering corals from other sources and having them delivered? If so, then go to RC and find Copps selling thread. He sells very HARDY stuff in huge chunks for reasonable prices. His quality is better than LA, IMO and he is as good of a shipper as anybody. There are plenty of good sellers on here as well. Lots of these sellers will have ORA stuff. Depending on where you are in Cali, you should be able to find all kinds of local hobbyists who are selling - are you a member of a local club?

I appreciate that they do not try and doctor their photos or use trick lighting. That photo of the Pearlberry on DD is one of the worst that I have ever seen. LA used to do a really good job with their photos before the black sand and Radion days.

NickC · Mar 5, 2019

jda said:
They still have all of those, but in short demand and they usually only sell to the stores who places the hugest (is that a word?) orders. Very hard to get.

Luckily, you can get all of this from other reefers for pretty cheap.

IMO, all of their corals look better in person than on their website - I am not sure what they are doing there.

Hawkins, Miami Orchid (beginner), Cliffs, Chips, Red Planet, Cali Tort are all good starter acropora. If you have a small tank, stay away from the Miami Orchid or other stags since they grow so fast.

That makes sense. Guess I’ll just have the lfs check with them and see what they can get. Tank is smaller, 75g, but I’m not really a huge stag fan.

Bpb said:
Don’t they take their pictures in a black view box under natural sunlight. Every picture of their corals is brown, but they look fantastic under artificial light. A correctly colored pearlberry or Hawkins are still in my eyes some of the most attractive corals to grace the hobby

They do, black background and corals look brown. My old pearl berry was probably my favorite coral I’ve ever grown, it looked 1,000 times better than their picture.

NickC · Mar 5, 2019

jda said:
Are you open to ordering corals from other sources and having them delivered? If so, then go to RC and find Copps selling thread. He sells very HARDY stuff in huge chunks for reasonable prices. His quality is better than LA, IMO and he is as good of a shipper as anybody. There are plenty of good sellers on here as well. Lots of these sellers will have ORA stuff. Depending on where you are in Cali, you should be able to find all kinds of local hobbyists who are selling - are you a member of a local club?

I appreciate that they do not try and doctor their photos or use trick lighting. That photo of the Pearlberry on DD is one of the worst that I have ever seen. LA used to do a really good job with their photos before the black sand and Radion days.

I’m absolutely ok with getting corals shopped, however the tank is pretty new and I’m gonna wait before I spend the money on a bigger order. I’m just putting a few pieces in for now and letting the system mature. This isn’t my first rodeo, but it’s the first tank I’ve started with dry rock...

I’m in a rural area of Northern California, not many reefers. When the tanks ready I’ll be placing an order with copps or Adam at battlecorals. Thanks for the tips.

jda · Mar 5, 2019

Good plan.

There are a lot of fake pearlberry corals out there. Be careful and ask for a photo before you order. Since you had the real-deal, you know what they look like.

NickC · Mar 5, 2019

jda said:
Good plan.

There are a lot of fake pearlberry corals out there. Be careful and ask for a photo before you order. Since you had the real-deal, you know what they look like.

Good to know, this hobby has changed a lot since I broke my last one down. Have you ever seen that blue bottle mari piece of there’s? Their picture looks pretty nice.

maroun.c · Mar 5, 2019

ORA has many solid colors accro most of which will.keep the colors in almost any tank. Theyre not much into crazy names and prices and frag i got feom them were all decent sizes and fully encrusted. I picked up many if the corals and took with me to the middle east and those the first designer corals that hit the region and many raved about them since then. Id do with:
Red Planet, Oregon Tort, Pearlberry, Laura purple, Bottlebrush, Joe the coral, Hawkins Echinata...

SeaDweller · Mar 9, 2019

NickC said:
That’d be great, thanks. Pearl berry is one of my favorites, its too bad I was really hoping to get one of those. I used to have a beatiful colony way back when.

Anyone ever have any good luck with their Marshall island Mari stuff? The blue bottle brush looks nice on the site.

This is really accurate to how I see it in real life. This is now in my DT.

NickC · Mar 10, 2019

TitanCi said:
This is really accurate to how I see it in real life. This is now in my DT.

Thanks for the picture!

NickC · Mar 13, 2019

Well the shipment came in, and they were able to get me a pearlberry. It was waaaay more expensive than I was expecting, but it’s the real deal and was right there so I snapped it up. Wasn’t really wanting to put anything spendy in the tank for a couple months but here we are... also picked up an ora Mari piece.

I forgot how annoying those dang Ora plugs are... broke a small tip of each frag when I had the dremel out! Glued em up next to each piece though so they should grow back together.

SeaDweller · Mar 13, 2019

NickC said:
Well the shipment came in, and they were able to get me a pearlberry. It was waaaay more expensive than I was expecting, but it’s the real deal and was right there so I snapped it up. Wasn’t really wanting to put anything spendy in the tank for a couple months but here we are... also picked up an ora Mari piece.

I forgot how annoying those dang Ora plugs are... broke a small tip of each frag when I had the dremel out! Glued em up next to each piece though so they should grow back together.