Stereo Nepthea? or Litophyton nepthea?

[MixedFruitBasket]

As stereonephthyas are my favorite corals I hope to get to 150 of them one day. Picture 1,3,4 is Stereonephthya without a single doubt. The upper left gold one (#2) is probably a stereonepthya too, but they usually only have multiple thin shoots. Lemnalia's (possibly pic #2) look like Stereonephthya's but are softer to the touch. I would buy any intact (or fragged) from you, name your price. I would assume shipping is 100-200 overnight. Ridiculous these days but it is what it is. Stereonephthyas are like sandpaper and look like they are made out of fiberglass. If you want to keep and not sell them, hit me up on care as I have 30+ and have kept them for over a decade possibly two.

The one funny thing about them is even though the are PARTIALLY photosynthetic, they are so much harder to keep alive than dendronephthyas or scleronephthya's. You MUST have super random high current and feed at least 1 time per day. They are the hardest "leather" to keep alive out there. If they wilt or lean over they need higher current.

This is from my experiences only, not gospel of course. different for each person.

HTH.

Yes, they look like they are constructed of fiber glass. Thinner tissue then a kind of matrix of scaffolding that's a bit more opaque. They're all kind of rough feeling. Nothing like a capnella tree.
My tank has very, very good flow. It's 24X48 and I have two of jaboe's cross flow. I change up the setting daily, but my default is the "multi pattern". I have lots of gorgs so they need a ton of flow, plus it keeps crap from settling. will you message me some pictures of yours?

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

Also I feed them at least twice a day. Again, lots of gorgs who have to eat. Plus I have a few leopard wrasses and they are on different time schedules.
I would love to know what kind of coral food you recommend for them. Right now I'm feeding a combination of phytoplankton, reefroids, copepods (cyclops and rotifers and plankton), some coral growth supplements, and occasionally reef snow mixed in as well. I use a pipet and make sure to directly get the food on them.

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

So I figured out how to increase the clarity of photos on my iPhone (yay me). Here are some "unconventional" pictures to give you a close up of the corals. Lighting note: I removed three of my 10K lights and replaced them with coral plus and blue plus due to yellowing. I'd hoped the one coral plus would be enough to prevent that but apparently not.
Also kessils on white 90% or so (give or take some) and blues 10% or so (give or take).

Also, the orange one was apparently three different corals on the same rock. As it expanded the rock parted so I went ahead and broke them up to give them room.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

So I figured out how to increase the clarity of photos on my iPhone (yay me). Here are some "unconventional" pictures to give you a close up of the corals. Lighting note: I removed three of my 10K lights and replaced them with coral plus and blue plus due to yellowing. I'd hoped the one coral plus would be enough to prevent that but apparently not.
Also kessils on white 90% or so (give or take some) and blues 10% or so (give or take).

Also, the orange one was apparently three different corals on the same rock. As it expanded the rock parted so I went ahead and broke them up to give them room.

Those look very healthy. Keep us in the loop. Such different softies.
Thanks, comrade

 

[ProfessorAronnax]

Man those are absolutely stunning! I may want a piece of that action too!!

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

Soooooo---I'm kinda excited here---but I'm waiting to hear the verdict.
I sent photos to a marine biologist in Australia who literally wrote (co-wrote) the book on soft corals. He thinks there is a very good chance these may be a species only recently discovered. He said they aren't in the book (the one he's sending me) because it was written before they discovered and named it.
I'm going to be getting him more photos. He's sending them to a colleague who is also a specialist in the field. He also said that the blue color, while it does happen, is exceedingly rare.

I am definitely going to have to see if I can't luck out and find more of these. And I'm DEFINITELY going to have to see if it's possible to reproduce them!

 

[ProfessorAronnax]

Soooooo---I'm kinda excited here---but I'm waiting to hear the verdict.
I sent photos to a marine biologist in Australia who literally wrote (co-wrote) the book on soft corals. He thinks there is a very good chance these may be a species only recently discovered. He said they aren't in the book (the one he's sending me) because it was written before they discovered and named it.
I'm going to be getting him more photos. He's sending them to a colleague who is also a specialist in the field. He also said that the blue color, while it does happen, is exceedingly rare.

I am definitely going to have to see if I can't luck out and find more of these. And I'm DEFINITELY going to have to see if it's possible to reproduce them!

Wow!That is exciting! During my time as a marine biologist I always wanted to find or name a new species! Amazing that you managed to get one into your home aquarium!

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

Wow!That is exciting! During my time as a marine biologist I always wanted to find or name a new species! Amazing that you managed to get one into your home aquarium!

I don't know for sure yet. He's sending the photos off to the guy who discovered the most recent subspecies. I am gonna try to get more macro photos as soon as I can get this camera in. Then I'll know for sure what I have, I hope. I offered to send him samples. If nothing else maybe I can take a sample to the local aquarium and he can get in touch with them and get them to send photos of cross samples.

 

[Ben Pedersen]

I'm in North Carolina. I can try and see about fragging them. Let me wait a few weeks to see if they are growing and healthy. I don't want to send anything that will struggle. Then we can talk about frags. I might have to ship tiny frags but if that would be okay, I could do that.

So... How are these doing? Still alive?

 

[N-A-S-O]

Earth to @MixedFruitBasket . Can we get a update?