Shortcake SPS Corals and other similarly named coral colorations

[Afm32607]

I have seen a lot of different Shortcake SPS frags for sale lately. Just wondering if anyone has more than one and whether they are actually significantly different? Not trying to call anyone out, I just can't edit out the tags. Simply curious, I have a Strawberry Shortcake from ORA, it is one of my favorite, when they grow up if they retain their unique coloration and what happens when/if they grow into one another.

Picturewise, they look similar but not exact, and in my experience lighting, flow, and nutrients play a huge roll in coloration. Some that I have had forever are greenish brown as a large mother colony, but a broken frag will grow green with orange and blue tips if it is placed in a different location.

Any thoughts?

Aussie Shortcake (daylight)

Raspberry Shorcake (Daylight)

Strawberry Shortcake (liveaquaria)

 

[stephj03]

Shortcake is synonymous with pink/green A.Microlados to me. There's a ton of them out there but only a couple of them are famous and known to color up better than the rest.

All of them will be nice IMO but they will look really similar if you have a few of them in the same tank.

There was a very prominent vendor that was selling several slightly different shortcakes with various names recently. And live aquaria always has a good selection of larger pieces.

They're all cool corals IMO but there are a couple of OG ones who's colors have yet to be rivaled by any of the ones brought in over the last few yrs. SO enjoy these, but don't expect to sell frags in the future with whatever name they came with for a premium.

Shortcakes can be sourced from OZ so while the Indo ban was in effect, I would imagine Aussie shortcakes were about the only thing a lot of vendors could get reliably.hth

 

[Afm32607]

Thanks for the info.

 

[AdamNC]

I’ve got 2 A. microlados. 1 Stawberry Shortcake and 1 Aussie Rainbow.

Aussie Rainbow, green is more teal in person.

Strawberry Shortcake, pictured middle.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

I had a wild piece that was more like the original type of shortcake that first came out. Got it before they were coming in like clockwork and was a bit different than the Aussie pieces these days.
This is an old picture of my colony from about 8 years ago. I think I got it wild originally in 2008. Sorry about the photobucket stamp...
This variant had really pink polyps and just small patches of pink on some coralites around the tips or areas getting good light and new growth.

 

[Big E]

There are many different morphs and colors-

I have pure pink and the standard green and pink which can come in many color intensities.

You Won’t Believe Where Strawberry Shortcake Acros Live | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

Recently in Australia, together with Nic from Ultra Coral Australia we had the luck to go and observe Acropora microclados, aka the Strawberry Shortcake (SCC), in its natural environment.

reefbuilders.com

Imo, the only difference between the Aussie pieces that come in now is the lighting at the vendors. Early on these were all being cooked under MHalides then sold.
Now the coloration is crappy/lost so they show up browned out on sites like DD.

There are also some other coral species with that same mint green and pink/red coralite combo.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

The one I posted was I believe from indo. I think the growth form would be slightly different side by side with Aussie and mine tabled into a thick plate quickly which I don’t see the Aussie ones do, their branches stay separated for the most part. But tank conditions could determine most of that anyways but I never saw one in a tank that looked just like it that was from Aussie waters.
Yea divers den is getting worse with their brown outs. Very sad, and the pictures are just wierd looking too color wise. It looks like most of the acros are not happy at all. I thought I saw they switched owners again and since then it’s gotten even worse. The most of the secale are just horrible looking and even the mille/spaths are not looking well. Those spaths used to look amazing on their site. I wish they would do whatever the we’re doing which was probably metal halides and more attention. I probably won’t order from them again until things change unless it’s obviously a piece that’s just came in, and even then it could be an older pic.

 

[Big E]

Aside from the MH they let those colonies cook for a few months before they would sell. I got a few colonies that had side cuts copletely healed the colors were outstanding.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Yea that’s why I liked divers den so much. The wilds were stable. Most would have saw cuts like you said healed all the way over. Everything I have got from them had great color but seems just recently the large portion of stuff looks off or brown. The off colored ones could just be horrible photography. I was always happier than I thought I would be when my boxes arrived from DD. If they just spent some money on someone who could take great pics I would assume they would make the money back and more.