The Classic Corals and Their Exit

[Scorpius]

I can say I like the crazy colored frags myself, but even a small bit of growth I get from my Purple Monster is so rewarding especially how slow mine grows.

 

[jda]

If it makes anybody feel better, most of these old schoolers are not going anywhere. Most that I know are not even 50 years old... just been kicking *** at reefing for twenty years and not really changing much along the way. There are a couple of kids (20 somethings) near me that have trended towards the old school who are starting to love these corals as well and should continue the trend to the newer folks. I think that they will always be around, but more in the shadows.

Reefer Madness Rainbow Nasuta, Westside Rainbow Tort (a more yellow version of WWCish Yellow Tip Austera), Atlantis Crayola Plana, Shades of Fall, Atlantis Banana Lokani, Atlantis Rosy Red Granny, just about anything from Atlantis, Mantis' Purple Polyp Aculeus are all great old-school corals that are as good as anything new today.

Does anybody know of anybody who has the old Atlantis 24k Acropora (it was really a Millepora)? I fear that this one is really gone forever.

Lastly, has anybody looked at the LE list on reeffarmers lately? Going down to the bottom is almost twenty years of LEs... most of the originals are still really good.

 

[pjr]

Wow... didn't realize that these have become rare.... I have a massive colony of 20k. Probably ready for some trimming....

 

[TexasTodd]

I'd add OBT to that list, but you still see it fairly often. I lived in PDX when it came in to Waves which ran out of basically a glorified storage facility.

 

[Peng]

Wow... didn't realize that these have become rare.... I have a massive colony of 20k. Probably ready for some trimming....

Please show us a pic

 

[pjr]

ok, not at home... here's an old pic, a FTS severely cropped...

 

[Who Dah?]

I'd be ecstatic if these two re-surfaced:

Eddie's Purple Monster

Tubs Real Deal Echinata

This doesn't even get into the ZnP list I wish would resurface, nor the Echino list! Ahhh, old school corals.

 

[Sir Chris]

I've never seen those, I would by if I could. Most stuff isn't available to me locally. I'm not crazed by the fancy stuff. I could care less if its the newest, I just like corals that grow at a steady rate. Most of my corals are simple stuff. Unfortunately I bought Hollywood Stunner and it's a pain in the ***. But I just can't seem to destroy it, I don't like what it does in my tank. I plan on getting a larger tank next year so I can give it it's own world. I got this coral and have no idea what it is but looks similar the Lokani. Got it very cheap, I think.

Looks Like a Hawkins echanata.

 

[stevieduk]

instead of calling it by some silly name, if you called it by its true name we would probably know what it was. is it a montipora, acropora or what ?

 

[gdemos]

Who's got Joleen's ATL Banana Lokani??? Hook up this old schooler! Thanks, -Greg

 

[29bonsaireef]

After searching for what seemed like forever. I was able to acquire a frag of ATL Banana Lokani. It's been encrusting fairly quick, so hopefully branches will come up in the near future.

 

[Battlecorals Verified Sponsor]

There have been so many corals that have come and gone over the last 10-15 years. Kind of the nature of the hobby really and a good reminder of how sensitive some of these can be. Was just reminiscing about the ORA Purple Pillow last week with an old friend, and I could probably name 20 more at least that you just don't see anymore. This is really nothing all that new actually. I think a lot of the slow growers just don't get spread around enough fast enough to be ubiquitous like a lot of other long captive pieces we are more familiar with seeing. When you can only cut a frag or two a year, as in the case of the Pink Panther and company, and doing so sets the colony back perhaps another whole year, it's just not even practical to see these pieces available more often. Unfortunately.

 

[gdemos]

After searching for what seemed like forever. I was able to acquire a frag of ATL Banana Lokani. It's been encrusting fairly quick, so hopefully branches will come up in the near future.

nice, ready when you are to share a slice! keep me posted on progress/success. -Greg

 

[Who Dah?]

There have been so many corals that have come and gone over the last 10-15 years.

Indeed! Crazy to think that at least one of these corals we are talking about has been in captivity for ~26 years!

On a side note: I was just having a discussion with the Legendary Corals trio the other day on when to call a coral 'old school'. It was a fun gray line to explore. Is it by year alone? Availability and story behind it? Introduce a splash of 'success rate'?

 

[29bonsaireef]

Was just reminiscing about the ORA Purple Pillow last week with an old friend

Not trying to get off topic..but do you have any updated shots of your Purple Pillie? This one reminds me of PM and PP in terms of growth, painfully slow grower for me..

 

[jda]

Part of me feels that some of the vendors don't really want to work hard. It is like when a local car dealer gets in a Ferrari or Lambo... they are not trying to make money on a used Lambo or Ferrari, but are looking for eyes to head towards them for exposure. Seems like even if you could only just sell two or three frags of one of these a year, just having them on the site would drive some traffic and probably more sales. I used to point people to the battlecorals website when they wanted PP... surely some of them bought other stuff.

 

[therman]

Dang, @Who Dah? was the person I always wanted to get a piece of the Tubs echinata from, but never managed to

There are a lot of old school corals on there, and several have frustrated me when I've tried to grow them for 20 years! I do have the PP and 20k lokani. Both grow painfully slow, but I only use LED now so that might be why. I've killed more Purple Monster frags than I can count.

Tyree Icefire is another classic that seems to be getting rarer. I stopped fragging mine after it stalled last year from an alk swing and it's just barely growing again.

There are plenty of pieces of pink panther around, but few people grow it into robust colonies.

Also as the market shifts from forums to FB there is a collective loss of memory and "classic" corals. The hot items are only whatever people are overcharging for on any given day, even if it looks like trash compared to what used to be the standard quality coral 15+ years ago.

 

[Who Dah?]

Heya @therman , long time no talk! Hope all is well.

Ya, that tubs real deal was similar to the ice fire in terms of growth. When on point, it can grow fairly well! But as soon as anything, anything, anything, goes wrong... If you ever come across it, let me know! And I'll do the same.