In January of 2003 Shaun Monahan of ecorals exchanged exotic stony coral
fragments with reeffarmers.com. One of the corals Shaun sent was unidentified
and he was looking for some assistance with identifying the coral. As soon as
Steve Tyree of reeffarmers.com removed the initial fragment of this coral from
its shipping bags, he thought 'I think I know what this is !'. After placing the coral
in a secure location, and not dropping it, Steve quickly paged through the 3 volume
Stony Coral Identification Guides called Corals of the World by Veron. And there it was.
This coral was the elusive and long sought after Echinopora mammiformis. Steve called
Shaun and as soon as Shaun looked at the images of this coral in Corals of the World,
he stated 'Thats it !'. This Echinopora has some very unique traits. It develops flat
plates and contorted branches. A branching Echinopora is an exotic coral. This corals
corallites are large, distinctive and conical. What makes this particular species even
more exotic then the branching Echinopora horrida, is that the corallites of the E.
mammiformis actually have a blue to purple coloration within them. It is unknown at
this time exactly what type of lighting stimulates the most intense purple/blue
corallite coloration. Pictures of this super exotic coral can be found in Corals of
the World Volume 3 pg 266-267. To date this coral has only shown very slow growth in
captive systems. Steve Tyree is maintaining this coral for reeffarmers.com in one of
his 125 gallon naturally filtered Tri-Zonal EG Reef Aquariums. In Steve's captive reef
the coral is positoned at about 14 inches from a 400 watt 20,000 K Radium Metal Halide.
The coloration of the coral is easily maintained within this reef, but the corallite
color intensity should be capable of being developed more fully. Water current is weak
to moderate.
Update - A new Bali farm in Indonesia began to ship cultured Echinopora
mammiformis colonies in the spring of 2004. They are not being shipped in
large numbers. Reeffarmers acquired a couple of these colonies and experimented
with one for growout. We did not have long term success in captivity with that E.
mammiformis and those particular corals have corallites that are much larger then
the corallites of the original Shaun Monahan E. mammiformis. The corallites on the
Bali cultured E. mammiformis are about twice the size of the corallites on the
original E. mammiformis. Shauns coral also primarily grows in a plating form. Because
of this we have decided to only grow out and distribute the original Shaun Monahan E.
mammiformis (see image above) because of its unique qualities and better long term captive
success. We now only have one growout colony we have changed the reservation schedule to
trimonthly. The price per small fragment remains $70. Harvest schedule was changed back
to trimonthly starting in March 2006. We will contact everyone with a pending reservation
in 2004-2005 to see if they still want this unique version of the E. mammiformis.
Echinopora mammiformis Year 2008 Monthly Limited Edition Schedule
March
Reserved for CK Chow
June
Reserved for M. Frost
September
Reserved for A. Maida
December
Reserved for K. Talbot
Echinopora mammiformis Year 2009 Monthly Limited Edition Schedule
March
Reserved for U. Kemp
June
Reserved for B. Wilson
September
Reserved for B. Fox
December
Reserved for W. Matousek
Echinopora mammiformis Year 2010 Monthly Limited Edition Schedule
March
Reserved for R. Meadows
June
Reserved for Y. Cheng
September
Reserved for J. Westfall
December
Reserved for M. Aback
Echinopora mammiformis Year 2011 Monthly Limited Edition Schedule
March
Reserved for S. Bauer
June
Reserved for C. Jones
September
Reserved for N. Gatzaros
December
Reserved for M. Schwitters
Echinopora mammiformis Year 2012 Monthly Limited Edition Schedule
March
Reserved for R. Rhode
June
Reserved for T. Wasden
September
Reserved for M. Maher
December
Reserved for C. Eldridge
Echinopora mammiformis Year 2013 Monthly Limited Edition Schedule
March
Available
June
Available
September
Available
December
Available
Echinopora mammiformis Year 2004 TriMonthly Limited Edition Schedule
March
Shipped to Ara D.
June
Shipped to Jerry G.
September
Cancelled
October
Reserved for D. Beary
November
Shipped to N. Columbo
December
Reserved for T. McDuffy
Echinopora mammiformis Year 2005 Monthly Limited Edition Schedule
January
Shipped to B. Adams
February
Shipped to G. Lissauer
March
Reserved for D. Bott
April
Reserved for A. Andrasz
May
Reserved for K. Yanskey
June
Reserved for P. Hickens
July
Cancelled
August
Reserved for R. Carlton
September
Reserved for D. Schultz
October
Reserved for J. Perchalski
November
Reserved for A. Maida
December
Reserved for C. Conway
Echinopora mammiformis Year 2006 Monthly Limited Edition Schedule
January
Reserved for J. Callahan
February
Shipped to I. Hartwell
June
Reserved for Aaron M.
September
Reserved for Scott W.
December
Reserved for R. Brewster
Echinopora mammiformis Year 2007 Monthly Limited Edition Schedule
March
Reserved for M. Hopper
April
Reserved for E. Balls
June
Reserved for Ara D.
September
Reserved for S. Merril
December
Reserved for R. Adam
To inquire about reserving a limited edition farmed
fragment of this coral please send an email to
reeffarmers@ispwest.com.
TM
