How do the get designer corals

[Kershaw]

i was wondering how they get, Create or find these corals like Jason fox this or wwc that.

I imagine there are countless specices of coral but the colors you see on a real reef are not the same you see in our tanks. I have seen corals come in from Ocean to a tank and they are pretty dull until they have been in a tank for some time.

I thought I read somewhere that they use uv light to force the corals to create pigment to protect them selves which can result in the colors we see.

Anyone know how this process happens. Thanks

 

[mannyhernz]

Everyone uses paint..
But seriously, it's the lighting. A coral looks different in all blue lights compared to natural light.

 

[ChiCity]

It’s 2 things.
Spectrum....
And Lightroom.

Every once in awhile though...
They really look as magical as they do in the pictures.
You have to shop wisely

 

[Graffiti Spot]

How they do it? They order boxes of wild or maricultured coral and pick the best pieces and sell the rest. Or they buy frags from hobbiests and rename them. The colors in the reef are still there. The corals come in dull because of shipping stress, not because the ocean grows dull coral

 

[29bonsaireef]

Actually quite the opposite. If you ever get a chance to see fresh picked corals under actinics or aquarium lighting they will blow you away, far brighter than any aquacultured. The ocean has and always will grow the most beautifully colored corals, can't beat what nature provides for them. Like @Pedoconfuego said they come in dull from being shipped half way around the world in a dark box.

 

[jda]

They are usually wild. Mari stuff is kinda generic and they grow the same ones over and over... if you see a nice coral on a Mari base, then somebody else probably got the same coral.

Corals grown/colored under daylight spectrum have amazing colors when then placed under bluer light. That color can then fade when the daylight is gone. You can do this with a few 6500K T5 bulbs or 6500k or 10K halides as well... and then have some blues on the tank for illumination.

To find one truly great wild acro, sometimes twenty need to die (they are hard) or just be blah. I do not have any issue with somebody making a good profit when a good one comes about... as long as it is legit and not with a bunch of photo editing and tricks. Without this, there would be no Fox Flame, Orange Passion, etc.

You can get wild stuff from Divers Den. It is sometimes cool to take a chance on one. I like to try out some wild deep waters from time to time.

 

[BoomCorals]

Yep they buy wild pieces, most of which will die or color down. Most wild pieces will drastically change color once brought into reef tanks. I do this once in a while myself, pick up wild colonies and sit on them for 6 months in my tank to see if they turn into anything special.

 

[Kershaw]

Thanks for all the reply’s I wish I could find the arrival that spoke of using Uv light. Maybe I miss read it

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Jda I agree that some Mari stuff is generic, but there are a few high end culture sites that constantly change their corals and culture very nice stuff. Also there is a lot better variety and colors these days it seems like, I think the people picking corals are catching onto what the hobby is demanding and better pieces are being picked and cultured.

 

[Jason_MrFrags]

Even if you are buying boxes of stuff it's already been picked through. It's a matter of who you know, and how deep your pockets are.
Yes, some times something brown comes through and ends up being a nice piece, I think part of that is the system it ends up in. Picking up zooanthelle from that system.


That's why JF goes diving and hand picks a lot of his stuff, strait to the source

 

[sjpreeflife]

You probably won’t get the answer you’re looking for exactly, because the market is quite saturated right now and that would mean giving up trade secrets where there is a lot of money to be made. Essentially they have great connections and have developed an eye for pieces that have potential. Some of these pieces they have been sitting on for a while “cooking”, some probably for a year or move. There are some ways to get corals to morph or develop new corals especially with all the new developments in lights and equipment, but you probably won’t get more than speculation because that is where some high dollar money is.

 

[amps]

I can tell you how one particularly famous Canadian SPS guy does it. He pays big money to divers and wholesalers overseas to insure that he gets the best wild pieces they have available. Deep pockets go a long way. On top of that, for every 30 wild SPS colonies he gets, 1 will turn out to have potential. He then colors them up for 2-12 months under strong T5 lighting. What's left at the end of the day can be extremely nice or a big pile of brown.

He can ask $200-600 for a frag and I'm ok with that because I know the work that went into it and I know that the coral is very healthy.

 

[ReefInskeep]

So other than getting lucky on Diver’s Den, is there a place the average hobbyist could order wild colonies from that are actually nice, high quality? That haven’t been picked over by those with deeper pockets?

 

[ReefInskeep]

Oops double post

 

[BoomCorals]

So other than getting lucky on Diver’s Den, is there a place the average hobbyist could order wild colonies from that are actually nice, high quality? That haven’t been picked over by those with deeper pockets?

I think aquaSD offers quite a few wild/mariculture colonies. Especially on their live sales.

 

[jda]

So other than getting lucky on Diver’s Den, is there a place the average hobbyist could order wild colonies from that are actually nice, high quality? That haven’t been picked over by those with deeper pockets?

You kinda have to know what to pick, as well. Some corals are just always going to be what they are.. red or purple or green. If you see some Tenius, then you could take a chance on that since there are all kinds of different colors. Tables, microlodus, torts, etc. can be nice, or you could have just bought a plain old blue tort. Wild Milles, Spath and Prostata are often fantastic if you can keep them under whiter light (they are very shallow usually), but they also have a VERY high death rate.

A very large amount of wild stuff does not end up being what it is in captivity for quite some time - sometimes more than a year. Some of the good stuff from Uchin (pinky the bear, etc) was in captivity for year or more before it settled into what it turned out to be.

When I take a chance, I do it on Deepwaters... Lokani (if I can find one), Loripes, Rosaria, Granulosa, Echinata, dragons, etc. They really can take a while. I bought a fully green with purple polyped Rosaria about nine months ago and it might be a red tipped teal-blue rosaria in captivity. If so, it is going to be fantastic, but time has not told the entire tale yet. However, I lost two Loripes in the same order and only have two barely-hanging on frags of a Echinata and Granny left that could die any day. The market is limited on reselling deepwaters, so not many people do this... but I like them and the old school crowd that I trade with likes them.

I do have a wild Plana that is going to be legitimate fantastic - it died back to a 1" stick. Pearlberry blue base with purple tips and corallites and blue polyps. It is really good. It has been about 24 months and I am just now ready to frag it away... the locals have been wanting it for a while now.

Be prepared for great losses with wild stuff, some stuff that turns out just-blah (this stuff always survives) and then some stuff that ends up being excellent.

 

[Pola0502ds]

Doesnt jason for dive for all his coral. Thats how they do it and his stuff is awesome. Love ordering from him.

 

[jda]

They get most of their corals from each other at frag shows. Yes, some dive for their own stuff, but that does not fill out their entire inventory. This is why the same coral has different names from different vendors. Fox Flame was the same as Something Burning Flame or Burning Candle or something like that that RMF had for a while.

 

[BoomCorals]

They get most of their corals from each other at frag shows. Yes, some dive for their own stuff, but that does not fill out their entire inventory. This is why the same coral has different names from different vendors. Fox Flame was the same as Something Burning Flame or Burning Candle or something like that that RMF had for a while.

He has a renamed garf bonsai too, etc. so you get some repeats.

 

[sonic]

Anyone remember reefer madness? He used to sell some crazy wild colonies at great prices... them days are gone