Trade Secrets of the Polyp Pimps-

[MizTanks]

Haha funny you should touch (pun intended) on this subject. New Reef Builders article I read today.
https://reefbuilders.com/2016/01/23/...7192-416567013

[Sir Patrick]

Haha funny you should touch (pun intended) on this subject. New Reef Builders article I read today.
https://reefbuilders.com/2016/01/23/...7192-416567013

Thank you Miz....that exactly the article that will save me a whole lot of typing.

[Sir Patrick]

Till I touch base on modern day lighting and photography, or anyone else adds to the subject, please read this article from RB-

https://reefbuilders.com/2016/01/23/...7192-416567013

And again...not saying all do it....but trust me when I say its a tool of the trade...

And the term "when it colors up" is many times just a "carrot on a stick, hung in front of a donkey"

Just saying....

[MizTanks]

Only reason I no longer buy online. Just way to many variables so to speak. Makes it very hard not to let one bad apple spoil the whole bunch.

[Sir Patrick]

Jim-

You have never had a polyp look one way, just the change, drastically or slightly, due to differences in your sytem compared to the previous?

Weather it be-

Type of lighting
Intensity of lighting
lenght of exposure to light
flow
tank husbandry
water conditions- ect?

You have never baught a boring polyp out of the LFS to have it become your diamond in the rough?

Still waiting for a responce.....but-

Even coralpedia admits that there are different morphs of the same mamaed polyps varying due to lighting, chemistry and tank conditions...

And they add pictures....

[Sir Patrick]

I guess I'm not among the early adopters of the high end polyps...mainly because of cost. After the morph has been around awhile with multiple hobbyist/vendors selling them, its fairly safe bet that they are a stable morph.

You are an oldschool polyp guru of sorts yourself....

You have never had your polyps, even those of lineage/named from the beginning, morph for you under different conditions?

[jimsflies]

You are an old school polyp guru of sorts yourself....

You have never had your polyps, even those of lineage/named from the beginning, morph for you under different conditions?

Not really to the extent that I think your implying. Sure different tank conditions can enhance or decrease color on certain varieties. Although in the long run, if they aren't in the right range of lighting, flow, nutrient, etc. they stop growing and die back. I wouldn't consider the color change to be unnatural/unstable if the colony is growing and continues to display those colors on future polyps.

i also accept that corals will have a range of how they look in the range of conditions they'll survive. Take these ppe's for example. I bought them as a two polyp frag. They normally have some blue speckles around the mouth. You can see most polyps still have the blue speckles...some more, some less. But there are a couple facing away from the light that don't seem to have any speckles. I would assume that if I placed some of these in lower light conditions, the blue speckles would be less pronounced on the majority of polyps. But I also know that if the light is much lower, the polyps won't open at all and will eventually die. It took some trial and error to find the sweet spot for them in the tank.



Lets take Miztanks' polyps as another example, I would guess that new polyps will look like the normal polyps and over time and the ones that turned green will likely revert back to what they were before the peroxide at some point.

As I said, I don't spend the big big bucks on single polyps. But when I purchase higher end polyps, they are usually varieties that have been around long enough that you know from the dozens of vendors selling them what color they are supposed to be. Not that I do that necessarily on purpose...but its the result of not being willing to spend the $$$ on the latest greatest. While I'm waiting for the price to drop due to increased supply, I continue to gain knowledge because I'm seeing those polyps in vendor tanks or posted online.

Unfortunately, I have never bought an ugly polyp and had it turn into anything overly cool either. But I don't spend a lot of money on those either since my tank has limited real estate to experiment with.

[jimsflies]

Alot of these new high end polyps are coming from mariculture, and I couldnt agree more!

Many times these racks are in sheltered lagoons, open deep oceans, tidal areas and shallows, all of which have very very different conditions.

Anyone notice all these hyper bright veitnamese based polyps? You know- the "green bay packers", "whammin watermellons" "Dragon eyes", "nuclear green dragon eyes"? All very common corals you can buy for $5-$10 for large frags....These super bright, sometimes slighly color variated (and highly advertised) are almost all maricultured....many times grown in the same areas of mariculture that those real nice maricultured (my favorite) SPS are grown.

These extra "special" morphs of these very very common polyps are maricultured in a slightly, and sometimes drastically, different locations, depths, and flow areas than normally collected in the wild, hence the vibrant differences in appearence.

For those of you unfamiliar with the most common of common veitnamese polps, do a search of "wild collected veitnamese polyps", then do a search of the names commonly given to these corals and add ultra, rare, hyper, ect to the beginnings of their names....you will quickly realize and see for yourself exactly what I mean...


These different locations, depths, tides and availability (or lack of) have caused some really nice morphs of some very common polyps.....but watch out....they can/will go right back to their wild colors if their new habitat (your tank) doesnt match where it was maricultured at, and might look just like the common colected wild polyp it truely is.

I have found that maricultured polyps, especially the most vibrant and colorfull- or "different" polyps tend to keep their look in SPS type conditions.

Its almost like your saying bright zoanthids aren't real or sustainable?

At the end of the day, our tanks don't represent the wild conditions either. Do we really know what an undisturbed wild whammin watermellon truly looks like?

Corals lose their color through handling. A freshly shipped coral doesn't generally have the same pop or sparkle that a well settled and happy coral has. Maricultured corals are also more likely to be handled/shipped by overseas companies that know what they are doing... the level of operational sophistication necessary to mariculture corals is higher than a couple guys free diving off a small boat. So when they hit the vendors in the states, they look better than a mistreated wild collected colony. Fragging corals as always happens in the supply chain also creates stress and temporary loss of color.

Again, I'm not sure if you're saying that the bright colors can't be maintained in our tanks?

But I think if these awesome bright Z&Ps are maricultured and growing in the same racks (same conditions) that's makes them more desirable because its a lot easier to reproduce consistent conditions in our tanks than it is a wide variety of conditions that they would presumably be found in the wild.

[Sir Patrick]

I wouldn't consider the color change to be unnatural/unstable if the colony is growing and continues to display those colors on future polyps.

i also accept that corals will have a range of how they look in the range of conditions they'll survive. Take these ppe's for example. I bought them as a two polyp frag. They normally have some blue speckles around the mouth. You can see most polyps still have the blue speckles...some more, some less. But there are a couple facing away from the light that don't seem to have any speckles. I would assume that if I placed some of these in lower light conditions, the blue speckles would be less pronounced on the majority of polyps. But I also know that if the light is much lower, the polyps won't open at all and will eventually die. It took some trial and error to find the sweet spot for them in the tank.

Thank you for sharring Jim- thats exactly the experiences I was looking for.

Not only do you have an awesome morph going on there of the PPE, but you know the exact cause and effect.

Had a feeling in your time raising polyps you had experienced this. So many people seem quiet on their Morphing experiences so far, thanks for sharing in full detail. Much appreciated.

[Sir Patrick]

Its almost like your saying bright zoanthids aren't real or sustainable?

I dont mean for it to sound like that, I mean-

Replicating previous conditions is the only way to secure a morph, of these special colors/speckles/striations/ect to stay the same long term.

Maricultured polyps for example-

In some of my "dirtier" tanks in the past, I have had these whammin watermellons or green bay packers, that were amazingly bright, maricultured in the Solomon Islands, gradually look just like the commonly collected ones from the Veitnamese waters, but the ones in my SPS tanks have held their colors and have been absolutely sustainable.

Same with morphs that have happened in my tank, much like your PPE's. Real and sustainable.

I find that polyps have a range of of parameters that they can except and will morph accordingly, till that limit is crossed. Only after that limit is crossed do they become unsustainable or stop growing completely. Some polyp types handle a wide variety of conditions, others- like your PPE require a much tighter range to survive.