NEW ACRO! ...by accident

puffster · Feb 15, 2017

This is a colony that I would like to share and is what I have been calling a Pink Lemonade Tort over the past years, mostly because all that was visible were the tips from where it was sitting.

Long Story Short:
When I decided to move this colony from where it was in the tank, due to being in danger of being over taken by Zoanthids. I was able to see the rest of the colony, I scratched my head and looked again. A discovery was made!. It sure did seem blue in the middle and the base. The reason for this is because about 6-7 years ago a friend gave me a great deal on two corals. One being a "Pink lemonade" tort/Acro and a "Blueberry" Tort. Well, after years of being in close proximity overlapping one another while in my 55 gal I started in and me not noticing (2yr NOOB at the time) thought I had lost the Blueberry tort. Then when I switched to the 150, it has been higher in the tank and the blue was not visible. Since the discovery, I have called the person I had gotten the corals from and went over things. He and I have concurred that the probability of the hybridization is in the 99 percentile if not 100%. Let me know what you think? Help me name it! I like Blueberryade. Yes, there is a nice size chunk that is broken, that is what he white is, in the upper left of the pic. of the colony. I like how the base is blue/purple with the pink tips.

Thanks,
Ernie

ReeferBee · Feb 15, 2017

Looks nothing like pink lemonade, which is not a Tort. Chances are the blue acro overgrew the other and no hybridization took place. I have several acro grow over other healthy acro tissue.

Gunner2012 · Feb 16, 2017

Agree with ReeferBee. Its not a hybrid. Just acro grow over.

puffster · Feb 17, 2017

I don't know about that, going to jump down a rabbit hole on this one. I'm no scientist or academia on marine life; but how do you explain the pink throughout and on the tips. There was no pink on the Blue berry tort originally. And yes, the pink lemonade was an Acro and not a tort, I stand corrected; the blue berry was. Anyway, here is the description of the growth to color pattern on this colony. The branching that it starts out with is pink with a light blue base. As the branch grows, the blue becomes more dominate on the base until the base is the deep blue/purple while the tips remain pink as the branch grows. The branch grows until at a certain point, it branches out again. After the new branch starts expanding, what was pink starts to turn blue as it grows and eventually matches the base while the pink stays on the tips building the colony. So I do not consider it to be a grow-over, although it could be a natural "grafting" of sorts that may have occurred, which may or may not be considered a hybrid, either way it is my tank growing and I like it. Picture does not give the pink tips and highlights justice.

ReeferBee · Feb 18, 2017

First off tortuosa is an acropora, a different type from pink lemonade which has bright green or yellow tips deping on light and nutrients. I'm sure this alone would keep a natural graft from occuring. Names tend to get thrown around in the hobby. Sometimes on purpose for enticing a sale, and other times by mistake. There are many color morphs of A. tortuosa and several naturally have purple / pink tips. I highly doubt you have hybrid. Even the same coral in two locations in one system can look different from each other. For example I have a tort in two different spots in my system that look like totally different corals.I don't doubt you have pink or purple tips on your "blueberry" but so many acropora have different color base and tips. That alone is not enough to call it a hybrid or graft. Nice acro for sure but that's a stretch to call it a hybrid based on pink tips. Torts can grow very quickly given ideal conditions. I'm sticking to my original post of one acro overtaking another. This happens all the time and is the reason why I have to regularly frag my sps to prevent the faster ones from overtaking.