Hey everyone,
We certainly are pushing the frags this month! As you know, we offer lots of other hand-selected, super colorful, high-qulaity coral frags! (try saying that in one breath). However, you may not have heard the cool stories behind some of the frags. Maybe this can be a regular feature here on R2R "The stories behind the frags", or better yet, "Stories from above the plug"...LOL
Particularly nice are some of the Acans, Chalices, and Zoanthids; we have a ton of really nice, fully encrusted frags for you to work with. Each one is high quality, healthy, and pampered by people who are as geeked out about corals as you are! Here are just a few examples:
PNG "Fire and Ice" Zoa. These are interesting and very collectible, because, to our knowledge, Zoanthids have never been imported into the US from Papua New Guinea before. We started working with these last summer, when we worked with Eco Aquariums PNG to bring in the first ecolabeled fishes- and then, corals, from PNG. Unfortunately, the company is no longer shipping, so it is unlikely that these zoanthids will be brought into the U.S. market again any time soon, if ever. Talk about "LE", these are the real deal- legacy frags from the first ever import of PNG corals. We'd love as many hobbyists as possible to work with these because of their relative scarcity. There may be other morphs that look like these, but these have TRUE lineage to PNG, which makes them extra cool, in our opinions!
UC "Stubby Green" Acropora. This is one of those fun success stories. This Acropora came to us from an aquacultured piece that we received last spring. We saw some potential in it, and made a bunch of frags of the coral. Initially, the coral was nothing to write home about, with a sort of subtle green color and nice polyps. And they took forever to pop up from the small frags we made. Months went by. However, one day we noticed that they were really starting to encrust! And shortly after that, they started producing lots of stubby little branches with brightly colored polyps. This species is near and dear to us because it was one of the first corals we worked with in our new facility, and it's become a solid seller.
Meteor Shower Cyphastrea. Ok, I'll admit it. Not every coral starts out super nice. We obtained a small colony of this coral from a fellow farmer last year, and it was one of the first specimens that we placed in our raceways. It promptly expressed it's displeasure with our brand new system by turning...brown. Not even a nice brown, mind you...Poop brown, with tannish-brown polyps. It grew enough to the point where we fragged it, figuring that maybe someone might find interest in the "S--- Shower Cyphastrea", as we came to affectionately call it. Then one day, as our systems began to mature and water chemistry started to fall into place, we started noticing some color...green! Then, teal! Then, brightly colored polyps! Next thing you know, our little ugly ducklings turned into swans, and we have a ton of this really great-looking Meteor Shower Cyphastrea! Its an awesome coral- proof that you should never give up on a coral!
Stawberry Shortcake Acropora (Acropora microlados, if you must). This is sort of a legendary coral, with its "naming roots" steeped in Unique Corals history. Several years ago, Joe Caparatta took notice of this incredible Acropora in a shipment he received at his New York City store, Manhattan Aquariums. In a moment of divine inspiration, he coined the name, "Strawberry Shortcake", and a star was born! Easily our most sought-after frag, the "shortcake" is another one of those cases in which the frags just didn't look all that hot initially. In fact, although they encrusted and grew rather quickly, it took months before they began to color up and resemble the coral that we all know and love today.
Hope that you enjoyed these little stories on some of our frags. One common thread we have learned in coral farming is that you can't give up easily. You need to really find out what makes a coral tick, and provide it- often for months- before you get satisfactory results. Patience and care are great attributes to have in this business. One of the reasons that "chop shops" come and go is because their owners fail to understand that great things take time, and that you simply can't rush nature. Good lessons for all of us, really.
Enjoy!
Regards,
Scott Fellman
Unique Corals
We certainly are pushing the frags this month! As you know, we offer lots of other hand-selected, super colorful, high-qulaity coral frags! (try saying that in one breath). However, you may not have heard the cool stories behind some of the frags. Maybe this can be a regular feature here on R2R "The stories behind the frags", or better yet, "Stories from above the plug"...LOL
Particularly nice are some of the Acans, Chalices, and Zoanthids; we have a ton of really nice, fully encrusted frags for you to work with. Each one is high quality, healthy, and pampered by people who are as geeked out about corals as you are! Here are just a few examples:
PNG "Fire and Ice" Zoa. These are interesting and very collectible, because, to our knowledge, Zoanthids have never been imported into the US from Papua New Guinea before. We started working with these last summer, when we worked with Eco Aquariums PNG to bring in the first ecolabeled fishes- and then, corals, from PNG. Unfortunately, the company is no longer shipping, so it is unlikely that these zoanthids will be brought into the U.S. market again any time soon, if ever. Talk about "LE", these are the real deal- legacy frags from the first ever import of PNG corals. We'd love as many hobbyists as possible to work with these because of their relative scarcity. There may be other morphs that look like these, but these have TRUE lineage to PNG, which makes them extra cool, in our opinions!
UC "Stubby Green" Acropora. This is one of those fun success stories. This Acropora came to us from an aquacultured piece that we received last spring. We saw some potential in it, and made a bunch of frags of the coral. Initially, the coral was nothing to write home about, with a sort of subtle green color and nice polyps. And they took forever to pop up from the small frags we made. Months went by. However, one day we noticed that they were really starting to encrust! And shortly after that, they started producing lots of stubby little branches with brightly colored polyps. This species is near and dear to us because it was one of the first corals we worked with in our new facility, and it's become a solid seller.
Meteor Shower Cyphastrea. Ok, I'll admit it. Not every coral starts out super nice. We obtained a small colony of this coral from a fellow farmer last year, and it was one of the first specimens that we placed in our raceways. It promptly expressed it's displeasure with our brand new system by turning...brown. Not even a nice brown, mind you...Poop brown, with tannish-brown polyps. It grew enough to the point where we fragged it, figuring that maybe someone might find interest in the "S--- Shower Cyphastrea", as we came to affectionately call it. Then one day, as our systems began to mature and water chemistry started to fall into place, we started noticing some color...green! Then, teal! Then, brightly colored polyps! Next thing you know, our little ugly ducklings turned into swans, and we have a ton of this really great-looking Meteor Shower Cyphastrea! Its an awesome coral- proof that you should never give up on a coral!
Stawberry Shortcake Acropora (Acropora microlados, if you must). This is sort of a legendary coral, with its "naming roots" steeped in Unique Corals history. Several years ago, Joe Caparatta took notice of this incredible Acropora in a shipment he received at his New York City store, Manhattan Aquariums. In a moment of divine inspiration, he coined the name, "Strawberry Shortcake", and a star was born! Easily our most sought-after frag, the "shortcake" is another one of those cases in which the frags just didn't look all that hot initially. In fact, although they encrusted and grew rather quickly, it took months before they began to color up and resemble the coral that we all know and love today.
Hope that you enjoyed these little stories on some of our frags. One common thread we have learned in coral farming is that you can't give up easily. You need to really find out what makes a coral tick, and provide it- often for months- before you get satisfactory results. Patience and care are great attributes to have in this business. One of the reasons that "chop shops" come and go is because their owners fail to understand that great things take time, and that you simply can't rush nature. Good lessons for all of us, really.
Enjoy!
Regards,
Scott Fellman
Unique Corals
