Rainbow trachys- do they fade?

[cdw79]

I've been patiently waiting for the right rainbow trachy/wellso for months. I found one I liked a lot recently- here's a screenshot from a video the seller sent over:

I was ready to pull the trigger, but he warned me that trachys/wellsos like this one can often fade over time. While I've been reefing for awhile now, I've never had one before so I'm not sure if that's the case, or if it's a sales-y thing to point me in the direction of one of the other trachys he also sent videos of. Never looking to assume bad intentions, but definitely want to do my due diligence before shelling out.

Looking over old threads I saw a few about these guys lightening, but it seemed like it was pre-bleaching if anything? So not sure what to think. Any thoughts?

 

[razorskiss]

Not sure if this applies to trachys as well but I had heard that a lot of new rainbow morph corals from Australia have been coming from deeper waters (I think I read this on reef builders about acans or micromussa I think?) and may not do well at tropical temperatures in hobbyist tanks. No idea if it's the same situation.

 

[Kellie in CA]

I have not had any issues with them fading over time. I have a couple rainbows, but not one with those exact colors. It's a beautiful piece, I'd grab it!

 

[cdw79]

I have not had any issues with them fading over time. I have a couple rainbows, but not one with those exact colors. It's a beautiful piece, I'd grab it!

Any idea what your PAR is where you have it? I have my LED's turned basically all the way up to support my derasa clam so trying to make sure it won't be overkill

Also is it true that their flesh can't touch rock? I'm planning on sticking it in a spot on the substrate but it might be a tight fit if the flesh really expands out. Not sure if there's a risk of an infection by its edges just resting on the edge of my scape

 

[Kellie in CA]

I have no idea what the PAR is in my tank. It's very shallow, and I have 2 Kessils at about 50%.

The main tricky part with Trachys is flow. They don't like a ton of it. I have one that is very picky and I'm always re-arranging things to make it it happy.

As long as the rock isn't particularly jagged, it should be ok just brushing up against it. They can expand several times the size of their skeleton.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Is it WYSIWYG? Sounds like he's warning you (or protecting himself) that the one you get wont be as brightly colored as that one.

 

[cdw79]

Is it WYSIWYG? Sounds like he's warning you (or protecting himself) that the one you get wont be as brightly colored as that one.

Fully WYSIWYG, but he said in his experience these can fade in time. So I don't think it's a matter of the picture not being representative and that he's trying to quell my expectations (the fact it was a video helps a bit in terms of knowing it's not saturated, at least) but more about long term experiences.

In fairness, though, I've never seen one quite like this in person, so I can't tell how exaggerated the color is with the orange lens on. Any ideas of what to expect? I know it's next to impossible to "truly" capture the actual colors of any coral, really, but I'm trying to be as informed as possible before spending the cash.

 

[cdw79]

This is what arrived today (taken under an orange lens as lights are coming on). When I opened the box there was a bunch of mucus everywhere in the bag, and I wasn't sure whether it was typical or a bad sign so took a video and sent it off to the vendor. But in terms of the coral itself, is this what I should have expected? Granted it's only been in the tank for a few hours, but I mean, if the ridges weren't in the same place I'd think this is a completely different coral. I feel kind of hard done by right now, but is this what I should expect? Is it at all likely to come around to something resembling the original picture? I'd been looking forward to today for awhile now, but can't help but feel pretty disappointed

 

[Lavey29]

Mine haven't faded and I've had them over a year but they do grow pretty large. One over 8 inches now.

 

[exnisstech]

The pic in your tank looks like it may have been taken under more white light. The pic from the vendor is under blues. Look at the color of the hand and plug, they are blue. Saturation may have been tweaked as well. I hate having to trust digital images for color representation. Take a look at some of the vendors images on here. Some of the colors are so bright and oversaturated it's almost comical. Hopefully it will color up to your liking, it looks very healthy.

 

[Lavey29]

This is what arrived today (taken under an orange lens as lights are coming on). When I opened the box there was a bunch of mucus everywhere in the bag, and I wasn't sure whether it was typical or a bad sign so took a video and sent it off to the vendor. But in terms of the coral itself, is this what I should have expected? Granted it's only been in the tank for a few hours, but I mean, if the ridges weren't in the same place I'd think this is a completely different coral. I feel kind of hard done by right now, but is this what I should expect? Is it at all likely to come around to something resembling the original picture? I'd been looking forward to today for awhile now, but can't help but feel pretty disappointed

I wouldn't be, it's a very nice piece. I love trachys. If you want a vendor with a killer trachy collection check out Timeless Corals. I think it's timelesscorals.com I have bought all my trachys there.

 

[cdw79]

The pic in your tank looks like it may have been taken under more white light. The pic from the vendor is under blues. Look at the color of the hand and plug, they are blue. Saturation may have been tweaked as well. I hate having to trust digital images for color representation. Take a look at some of the vendors images on here. Some of the colors are so bright and oversaturated it's almost comical. Hopefully it will color up to your liking, it looks very healthy.

The pic was my screenshot from a video he sent, so in theory it can't be oversaturated as I understand? He seemed like a standup guy, threw in a really nice freebie Acan, has a good rep on here from what I can tell. I know the video was undoubtedly taken with a lens on so it's never going to look 100% exactly the same way it did there, but I was hoping for like 80% similar.

I've since ramped up all my blues for a sec (usually the whites go off in the evening) and it definitely looks a little better.

Is it possible it just got a little pale during shipping and might eventually come around? I'm hoping I can still get the yellows and pinks to come out of it (in person it's just a pale blue with green stripes and tiny red flecks right now) but a local reefer said maybe it dulled out during shipping? Just need a sanity check here, I got majorly jipped by someone who I later learned is known for saturating his pics like crazy, so I have a bit of PTSD and appreciate the advice. I've waited a long time for the right piece and just hopeful I can get it to come around!

 

[reefluvrr]

How is the color of your Trachy now?

 

[cdw79]

How is the color of your Trachy now?

It's marginally improved but pretty much the same. Sadly it doesn't look like it'll ever be returning to anything resembling the pic. The seller was kind enough to offer to get me a new one for free if I spent $200 or so on something else to make it worth while for him, which I feel like is a very fair offer. Have yet to take him up on it as I've been focusing on adding some extra hardware to the tank but could have been worse. I think in the future I will try to buy these locally- it seemed like shipping was hard on it (or maybe it was just sub-par packaging for this particular type of coral). Either way I'm not too upset, these things happen sometimes.

I'm away for the holidays right now but will try and remember to post an update if there's interest. If nothing els it's incredibly happy nowadays, just not very vibrantly colored

 

[reefluvrr]

Thank you for the detailed update.

It sounds like at least the vendor made effort to resolve a not too happy result.

I have a similar situation with an orange and green plate coral where it looks great on the vendor site, but came in muted colors. It did somewhat improve over the course of a month. However, once I switched out my old lighting to newer ones, it made an additional pop in the vibrancy of the colors as well.

I went to my local fish store and found an amazing looking trachy and thus the research about color staying or not.

Happy New Year!

 

[afrokobe]

to add on, I purchased one that looked like this initially. It did come a little faded and not as bright as the pictures. Its been a few weeks and it has settled in nicely, but colors are still a bit faded. Not sure if its a function of initial photo being edit/shot with orange filter or just the change from tank to tank in terms of nutrients causing the colors to fade a little.

 

[EZKLR]

could be your light spectrum is slightly different so it's not showing the same colors as the suppliers. still nice looking pieces

 

[vetteguy53081]

I've been patiently waiting for the right rainbow trachy/wellso for months. I found one I liked a lot recently- here's a screenshot from a video the seller sent over:

I was ready to pull the trigger, but he warned me that trachys/wellsos like this one can often fade over time. While I've been reefing for awhile now, I've never had one before so I'm not sure if that's the case, or if it's a sales-y thing to point me in the direction of one of the other trachys he also sent videos of. Never looking to assume bad intentions, but definitely want to do my due diligence before shelling out.

Looking over old threads I saw a few about these guys lightening, but it seemed like it was pre-bleaching if anything? So not sure what to think. Any thoughts?

For years I have had trachy coral as well as wilsoni and scoly. They remain at color with good water quality abd feedings with mysis shrimp. The only time I saw any color difference is when lights were changed or schedule change which was temporary

 

[cdw79]

to add on, I purchased one that looked like this initially. It did come a little faded and not as bright as the pictures. Its been a few weeks and it has settled in nicely, but colors are still a bit faded. Not sure if its a function of initial photo being edit/shot with orange filter or just the change from tank to tank in terms of nutrients causing the colors to fade a little.

Yours looks great if you ask me! Mine just seems to have had a rough shipping experience (it wasn't secured to anything so it rolled all over itself and came in looking pretty rough- not ideal). But these things happen. Will hopefully go for a similar one in some future tank build, and probably buy locally if possible. Good luck with yours!