Questions about unusual Montipora Digittata strains

[Bigfish502]

Hello everyone I'm new here at Reef2Reef but I have looked over the forums previously and saw mentions of elusive Montipora Digittata such as "pink smoothie", "Reefer on a Budget", "Metal Polyp", "pink lemonade", etc. that I've never really heard of and many of which I don't see any mention of anywhere else on the internet. My question, as silly as it might sound, is whether these strains are actually real (metal polyp Digi doesn't even show up on Google searches) or if they're simply common, well established strains that look different simply because of the lighting and nutrients they were kept in? My friend who got me into reef keeping believes the latter and told me it would be a waste of time and money to try to acquire such strains. I know Jason Fox has like 5 different strains that he claims are different and unique from most usual offerings but honestly I don't know if I should believe him either. The only strains I know of that are unique enough to be called separate strains are red, peach, green, purple, forest fire, bubble gum, ORA German Blue, and the German Blue that Tidal Gardens sells. Everything else I'm not sure about.

 

[Dburr1014]

Hello everyone I'm new here at Reef2Reef but I have looked over the forums previously and saw mentions of elusive Montipora Digittata such as "pink smoothie", "Reefer on a Budget", "Metal Polyp", "pink lemonade", etc. that I've never really heard of and many of which I don't see any mention of anywhere else on the internet. My question, as silly as it might sound, is whether these strains are actually real (metal polyp Digi doesn't even show up on Google searches) or if they're simply common, well established strains that look different simply because of the lighting and nutrients they were kept in? My friend who got me into reef keeping believes the latter and told me it would be a waste of time and money to try to acquire such strains. I know Jason Fox has like 5 different strains that he claims are different and unique from most usual offerings but honestly I don't know if I should believe him either. The only strains I know of that are unique enough to be called separate strains are red, peach, green, purple, forest fire, bubble gum, ORA German Blue, and the German Blue that Tidal Gardens sells. Everything else I'm not sure about.

I believe, every seller will come up with it's own name even though, the may be the same coral.
Do yourself a favor and don't get caught up in the names. Just buy what you like.

 

[rossco]

Pink Smoothie is real, I still have it. Nursing it back right now after all my montis crashed. Super slow grower.

In its former glory.

 

[Bigfish502]

I believe, every seller will come up with it's own name even though, the may be the same coral.
Do yourself a favor and don't get caught up in the names. Just buy what you like.

The problem I run into when trying to buy what I think looks nice is I'm not sure if what I'm being sold is actually going to stay true to it's photo. For instance if I'm looking at what is claimed to be a pink Digi how I am to be sure it isn't really a common orange Digi that was baked under high lights. Or in the case of "metal polyps" it sounds like a coral I'd be interested in but I can't seem to find any proof outside this forum that it even exists.

 

[Bigfish502]

Pink Smoothie is real, I still have it. Nursing it back right now after all my montis crashed. Super slow grower.

In its former glory.

I'm curious where did you acquire this coral and how did you know you weren't being sold a baked forest fire Digi?

 

[rossco]

I'm curious where did you acquire this coral and how did you know you weren't being sold a baked forest fire Digi?

I bought it in person from Exotic Frags.US around 2013. 100% trustworthy. I grew that from a frag. If it was a forest fire it would have changed morphed by then. I have both.

It is super sensitive, I have almost lost it several times.

Here is an previous discussion here on R2R

Anyone have an original Pink Smoothie Digitata?

I'd like to pick up one of these up but it seems that they are all gone. This isn't a bleached orange digi..........it's a true pink. It's distinct in that it has green growth tips and a pastel pink body. It grows fast and was not an expensive coral but it seems to have all but disappeared...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Dburr1014]

The problem I run into when trying to buy what I think looks nice is I'm not sure if what I'm being sold is actually going to stay true to it's photo. For instance if I'm looking at what is claimed to be a pink Digi how I am to be sure it isn't really a common orange Digi that was baked under high lights. Or in the case of "metal polyps" it sounds like a coral I'd be interested in but I can't seem to find any proof outside this forum that it even exists.

Yup, I get it.

Do you buy most stuff online?
I generally but stuff at frag shows. There I can ask all the questions before I buy.

 

[Bigfish502]

Yup, I get it.

Do you buy most stuff online?
I generally but stuff at frag shows. There I can ask all the questions before I buy.

There aren't any coral swaps/frag shows where I live. There is a LFS that grows a fair amount of coral but they have a hard time just keeping the common Digi strains in stock (though I did get a yellow stylophora from them yesterday). The owner has his own names for most of the corals he grows.

 

[BranchingHammer]

Reefer on a Budget (ROAB) green digitata that I got from @Battlecorals behind the bubblegum digitata in front:

 

[Doctorgori]

I believe, every seller will come up with it's own name even though, the may be the same coral.
Do yourself a favor and don't get caught up in the names. Just buy what you like.

I think some retailers get frags from different sources and either rename so as to to infringe on a copyrighted name OR they just are not sure what it is and make one up…
A pretty well known retailer does this and IMO is pretty liberal with the names.. I’ve seen two pics side by side that looked exactly like the same coral and one had “nuclear” in front and the other did not…
,,,I think the “name game” is a pricing gimmick …

 

[Bigfish502]

Reefer on a Budget (ROAB) green digitata that I got from @Battlecorals behind the bubblegum digitata in front:

So what differenciates a ROAB from a common green Digi? When I showed a picture to my reefer friend he thought it was a common green Digi.

 

[BranchingHammer]

So what differenciates a ROAB from a common green Digi? When I showed a picture to my reefer friend he thought it was a common green Digi.

Not really sure. To me, it looks the same as any other green digi with a blue base, I think it may just be named ROAB because he happened to bring it into the hobby. But yeah, don't see much difference, it's a nice digi overall.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Metal polyp digi was around for a while, battlecorals had a big colony at one point. I found a fragment of a similar digi at one point but it was so finicky and small I couldn’t get it going at the time. Maybe Adam still has a picture of his old one? This was the only truely rare digi that I had seen. The half white half grey polyps were unlike any other hard coral I have seen to this day. And they were not just randomly placed, most of the polyps were split colors like that. The fact that it was a grey tone and (I am assuming not a fast grower) might be why it is not really around anymore. If it is people need to propagate it badly.

 

[Bigfish502]

Metal polyp digi was around for a while, battlecorals had a big colony at one point. I found a fragment of a similar digi at one point but it was so finicky and small I couldn’t get it going at the time. Maybe Adam still has a picture of his old one? This was the only truely rare digi that I had seen. The half white half grey polyps were unlike any other hard coral I have seen to this day. And they were not just randomly placed, most of the polyps were split colors like that. The fact that it was a grey tone and (I am assuming not a fast grower) might be why it is not really around anymore. If it is people need to propagate it badly.

Do you know anyone who might still have a colony?

 

[Graffiti Spot]

I wish! After finding a random frag in what looked like a bunch of chopped up wild corals at a local store I spent a long time just trying to find out if there was anything else like it, eventually I talked to Adam and found it was pretty rare and was called the metal polyp digi. The other variants might still be hard to find at times but they certainly grow well and are there to be had. If anyone finds this digi please share it, not everything is about money

 

[X-37B]

Yea I cant keep up with the names. Its all marketing from a money standpoint, imo.

Anyone do this with their digis? I made 2 frags like this and it will be interesting to see them in 6 months. Not trying to fuse but they could. Just wanted to see what a green, forestfire, and a german blue would look like grown together.
If anything the 3 colors wil contrast each other well.

 

[StatelineReefer]

@Battlecorals Care to chime in on the Metal Polyped Digi? I know I had one ages ago... but... well... Montipora gonna montipora in ny tank. Maybe someday.

 

[X-37B]

I bought it in person from Exotic Frags.US around 2013. 100% trustworthy. I grew that from a frag. If it was a forest fire it would have changed morphed by then. I have both.

It is super sensitive, I have almost lost it several times.

Here is an previous discussion here on R2R

Anyone have an original Pink Smoothie Digitata?

I'd like to pick up one of these up but it seems that they are all gone. This isn't a bleached orange digi..........it's a true pink. It's distinct in that it has green growth tips and a pastel pink body. It grows fast and was not an expensive coral but it seems to have all but disappeared...

www.reef2reef.com

Nice pink digi! I have your Tubbs Stelata whenever your ready!
Glad I ran across this thread as I forgot. The beauty of getting old, lol.

 

[Bigfish502]

Not really sure. To me, it looks the same as any other green digi with a blue base, I think it may just be named ROAB because he happened to bring it into the hobby. But yeah, don't see much difference, it's a nice digi overall.

I saw Jason Fox had a "purple tide Digi". Do you think that could be a rebranded ROAB?

 

[Bigfish502]

I wish! After finding a random frag in what looked like a bunch of chopped up wild corals at a local store I spent a long time just trying to find out if there was anything else like it, eventually I talked to Adam and found it was pretty rare and was called the metal polyp digi. The other variants might still be hard to find at times but they certainly grow well and are there to be had. If anyone finds this digi please share it, not everything is about money

Could this be a metal polyps montipora?