Grafting: Make your own rainbow chalice? Acro? Pics are Proof.

[franklypre]

This seems to be a topic that is put on the back burner every time it has been brought up @the other places. I'm new to this forum and have seen a few "natural" grafts/green pigment infections but to manually do this? I've seen documentation of it working with Palys, the idea of this comes from the checkerboard monti caps I see around. But alot of the chalice I see for big money looks like 2 completely different chalice that have been grafted. A few of the big name fraggers sell grafted acros/setosa, so if anyone has a decent pic to contribute I would appreciate it, if anyone has fragged 2 different color morphs of chalice or acro together that would be amazing. Thanks in advance.

 

[m and m]

I am not 100% on this but I dont think its simply cutting two pieces and putting them together. The Checker board monti is not a graft I think. More like two corals that are growing together. If you look at the checker board in the middle it never melts into the other color and the growth edge is just two montis growing together. The WWC Grafted cap is another story the Green in it was Pigment transfer and I dont think I have ever seen any documentation on this happening with chalices..

 

[franklypre]

I'm thinking two of the same species literally glued together just like the monti, layered. It occurs naturally in many different ways, just look at most chalice that are considered rainbow. The seem like a "rare" graft/splice of several different varients of chalice, I assume it is natural and have no reason to believe it is not. That said what would cause this to happen. I have many frags of a purple watermelon chalice and have considered attempting a few different ways to do this. Either cut two different types up and glue them directly together or seperate them with 1/4" and let them grow together.

 

[SDguy]

I'd be interested to see if this is possible with chalices. I have a miami hurricane growing over a no namer, and a pink ******* growing over the miami hurricane. Definitely no grafting happening though, just overlapping growth.

 

[KLR]

Grafting can occur in SPS by glueing them side by side BUT there are a few steps that have to be carried out prior to the glueing and even when those are carried out you will not have 100% grafted results. Chalices and many other corals can be grafted as well. If you have not already, I would suggest you surfing google on coral grafting and seeing what you can find. When I searched a few months ago I actually found an archived gov. file, that was released to the public, that specifically addressed stony coral grafting. Also, some people in this hobby have created very informative write ups on coral grafting that can be found online as well.

This could be completly wrong but I have wondered to myself if grafts occurring in chalices is a whole lot more common than we think. In example, all of the widomaker look alikes, these recent alien eye/BPC flamethrower hybrid type ones(not saying these are common, just the graft occurrence in chalices as a whole), and the red chalices with purple or dark blue streaks. These all have random color "melting" appearances but are not considered grafted. I have no proof to back up that they are grafted. This is just a thought I have wanted to share for a while,hahahah.

 

[franklypre]

Good info, sounds like a fresh cut would get us better results. I searched grafting but never read anything that seemed conclusive or even much past where this thread is now. I have one of the gold/pink that is sometimes called 24k or something gold, it's not a big frag by any means but I've considered splicing the two to see what happens. These would be 1 of the colors/types

 

[WesF]

Is this grafting? My monti cap was a solid bright green until it grew to the point where it is touching a Tyree Purple Unknown. Now it appears to be showing some purple pigmentation.

 

[jaa1456]

I believe people are grafting or even injecting chalices with some type of dye. They do it with fish so why not coral? Also I think chalices like the widowmaker were collected at one point and a few new colonies have been pulled from the ocean that are basically the same exact coral, but grew in a deeper depth, shallower or who knows and that is why it is not a 100% look alike. I really do think grafting and dyes are involved in those rainbows.

 

[FaviaFreak]

Is this grafting? My monti cap was a solid bright green until it grew to the point where it is touching a Tyree Purple Unknown. Now it appears to be showing some purple pigmentation.

That is super cool!!!!

 

[secretreefer]

This is SUPER Sweet!

Is this grafting? My monti cap was a solid bright green until it grew to the point where it is touching a Tyree Purple Unknown. Now it appears to be showing some purple pigmentation.

 

[franklypre]

Definately a good example of grafting rather than the green pigment infection. As far as how they are making these chalice I don't know and they wouldn't tell regardless. I'm in search of a few good chalice frags to attempt an unatural graft.

 

[1mbrews8]

cool topic... keep it going )

 

[Ace25]

Steve Garrett has grafted quite a few Acros. It just seems to be trial and error. Some acros sting/kill each other, some will graft without issues, the trick is finding which ones work (and I don't think it is common for grafting acros to work out, so more often than not you will end up with 1/2 a dead piece).

 

[Aquaph8]

Pretty interesting stuff, Im tagging along. That green monti cap is cool.

 

[ian20]

I'm tagging along I like this topic. I have been Thinking of trying this myself

 

[NanoNathan]

that monti is crazy looking sweet!! i wish i had a nice one like that .

 

[franklypre]

There is an article on Reefbuilders wondering where all the rainbow chalices come from. Really wish there were an answer availbale to us. Seems one of the sponsors on this site has quite a few extreme rainbows, I would love to here how/where these were found.

 

[austx]

Definitely an interesting topic. Could you post a link to the reef builders thread you mentioned?

 

[Onedesign1]

yeah when I saw a rainbow in person and thought that is the only time I've seen a coral look as vibrant in person as in a pic I started wondering the same thing. Are these grafted or pigmented somehow? Cool topic....will do some surfing as well on the topic/

 

[Tabasco1]

Echinophylia chalice corals are getting crazy colors for no reason

looks like this is the link. Doesn't really provide much additional info. It would be great to hear from a sponsor if they knew, but perhaps might be breaking a confidentiality agreement.