And more photos of something you've all seen before...

[Quinn]

Even with the camera set to "fluorescent", I still had to tweak these in Photoshop. :neutral: But this colour is spot on. Jon is kicking himself hard now I think, "here, you can have this acro, it hasn't done anything in my tank and it's just brown". Wish I had progress shots of both of these, particularly the larger one... Tell me when you get bored of looking at these ones, because I could take pics of them forever.

http://quinn.rdcpsych.org/fish/purple%20and%20blue%20acros%20mar%202%2004/1.jpg

http://quinn.rdcpsych.org/fish/purple%20and%20blue%20acros%20mar%202%2004/2.jpg

[eposer]

Mmmmmmmmm...

Nice pics :eek:

[smokinreefer]

nice score quinn!
they look awesome!

[Canadian Man]

That's funny Quinn.

That's A piece I got from Tony,
You should bring me back a piece and see what it does in my tank.

[AJ_77]

:eek:

HOW much Photoshop?? Even the clownfish is purple! :lol: :biggrin: :eek:

[EmilyB]

Now if you could just squeeze those things together tightly you'd have some really cool zoos... :razz: :mrgreen:

[Quinn]

Jon, the top one is the one I am bringing you the piece of. Apparently the second one is also from Tony. I am about to ask E. Bornemann if it is likely to have this much of a difference between two frags from the same mother colony.

Not too much Alan, but you're right, it seems to have worn off on the clown. But I swear, the corals really look this good, I'm not just doing this to trick you all! :razz:

[Delphinus]

This piece seems to be fairly reactive (more so than other acros) in my experience.

Under 10k's it's really nice. Under 6500k's (my current setup) it's more "so-so" and people don't seem to be all that impressed by it (whereas people were like "Holy crap WOW" when I had it under 10k's).

I can only guess what it'd look like under 20k's. When I sent some pieces to Jayson he told me that the tips were brillitantly purple, but more green came out underneath the tips. Sounds keen. I will eventually be switching over to more 10k's/20k's but alas, only "in due course."

[Quinn]

I asked Bornemann and so far the only response is from some other wiseguy who said "read the FAQs". I want Bornemann to express his opinion on whether the two corals are from the same mother colony (which they obviously very likely are) and why the discrepancy. We'll see what he says.

What would be interesting is if both you (Tony) and I brought Jon a piece on the same day. I wonder what would happen to the coloration then. Tony can you get an overhead shot of yours? Which of my two is it more similar to?

[Delphinus]

I'll try to get some shots in later. Unfortunately, it has elements of both your pictures and elements of neither. The tips are starting to be obviously purple, but the lower branches is like chocolate kind of brown. The pieces I put in my 72g which has 10000K turned a REALLY nice purple, unfortunately though they are being smothered to death by about a zillion mushrooms. I honestly ought to get what's left of them out of harms way. How about a piece of those, plus a piece of the big colony (since again two divergent paths) and we can really have some fun with this?

[StirCrazy]

yes you can have big differences in corals from the same parent. water flow, light, food types and quantity, PH, ALK, Ca, ect are not the same in any two tanks and coloration and growth of a coral is a factor of it genetic make up plus its environment.

Steve

[Delphinus]

Best I could do with what I've got to work with..

http://members.shaw.ca/hobiesailor/temp/misc/purpleacrotop.jpg

[Bob I]

Get some to me. I can brown those up for you in no time flat. :mrgreen: :eek:

[Quinn]

Ah Tony you need to tap into the new wave of technology that is "the scuba mask". :razz: But yes I can see the resemblance.

[Quinn]

The coral may be A. valida...

[Delphinus]

Got a link to info?

[Quinn]

Google yields a fair number of results. Mostly I am looking at http://www.meerwasserlexikon.de/steinkorallen/1045674285.htm, http://www.mtq.qld.gov.au/04research/coralsite/Avalida.html, and http://www.dustindorton.com/work/newpics/new%20new%20pics/pages/valida.htm, the site of the fellow who identified it as such.

[Delphinus]

Oh - I thought maybe Borneman had told you or something like that.

That third one looks a little like it. The only thing is (and especially apparent on the other two links) is that it looks like it stays thin and branchy, whereas this one typically hasn't done that, the new growth is thin and branchy but the lower parts end up being one solid piece of coral. Almost similar to a table growth pattern (although it's not a table by any stretch). It actually makes for fragging pieces of older colonies a bit difficult because whereas the new branches are thin and brittle, older branches are stocky and darn near impossible to cut through with side cutters.

Interesting... I think I had seen pictures of A. valida before now that you mention it, and thought that this is a possible ID ... but in the end, anything I decide it to be is just a guess... so "purple acro" works for me. :lol:

[Quinn]

Yeah, just a possibility for now. More of a negative ID than a positive ID, ie. it's not A. millipora, A. humilis, A. gemmifera, other common species. The guy who tweaked me to it being A. valida works for ORA, for what it's worth. As per Bornemann's writings, there's no point in pretending it is actually A. valida without having the skeleton analyzed. But it's nice to at least have an idea.