This Montipora undata has an incredible pigment coloration pattern
that requires some explanation. I first saw this Montipora specimen
in of all places, the land locked State of Idaho. We were on the last
stop of a local tank tour sponsered by the Idaho Marine Aquarium
Society when I spotted this amazing Montipora undata that had acquired
an exotic coloration that I had never seen before on a Montipora or
photosynthetic stony coral. It was an odd and beautiful shade
somewhere between pink and purple. The local aquarist
had grown the coral under VHO fluorescent lighting. I was able to
barter for a fragment of this exotic coral and hand carried it in a bag of
water through the Boise airport, on two planes and all the way back to
reeffarmers.com facility in Rancho Cucamonga California. By the time
I arrived at my facility the bag water was cold and the coral look very
stressed. Luckily it recovered and has now grown into a small colony.
The pigmentation changed from its wild pink/purple to a deeper purple
that has a grape-like coloration. Coral edges and tops of tuberculae are
colored bright blue. This reef has a 400 watt 20,000 K metal halide and
a couple of small T5 actinic fluorescents. The reef aqaurist who is farming
this coral is Scott Morell of Boise Idaho. Scott acquired the coral from
GARF on January 2002. GARF calls this coral a 'Bali Red Bowl'. The
coral actually appears to be an undata species as the growth form also
looks very much like that shown in Corals of the World Volume 1 Page
87 Image 5 and 8. This morph also has the horizontal plating growth
form for this species. 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
16 inches from a 400 watt 20,000 K Radium Metal Halide. This coral
can maintain its exotic grape pigmentation in moderate
to strong lighting. You might even have success using a maximum
amount of VHO fluorescent lights. Water current is moderate. Starting
in September 2003 ReefFarmers.com is allowed to distribute 1 farmed
fragment of this coral per month. Price is currently $55 per small sized
fragment. Please note - We dropped the price
on June 8th to $55 per small fragment. This is mainly because the coral has experienced
a wider captive distribution.
The monthly limited edition reservation schedule can be found
below. Please note effective December 2007 we have changed the harvesting
and reservation schedule to bimonthly. This better matches the corals long
term growth rate in captivity.
Montipora undata Idaho Grape Side View.
Note the growth of turberculae that have fused into ridges.
TM
