What's the FIRST coral you ever bought?

[Nano New]

A frogspawn coral. I'm new and took the advice of the reef shop. Didn't know they are aggressive and don't play well with others. This is relatively important since I'm running a nano tank. It's in a spot where it doesn't seem to bother the others I have put in recently. Due to lockdowns it was the only coral in the tank for 4 months and settled in nicely. I stressed like crazy for months as it was my first coral and I was terrified of killing it!

 

[Tbg299]

For me it was a small green Candy Cane It had like 3 heads and ended up with hundreds and about the size a Grapefruit.

Holy cow, how long have you had it for?

 

[mehaffydr]

Holy cow, how long have you had it for?

I had this candycane for almost 10 years. I had to break it apart and sell it off when I moved from St. Louis to North Alabama. I did not want to try and transport it. That was back in 2011

 

[CanuckReefer]

1996, A Pink Bubble Coral, lasted me about 3 years surprisingly, so foolish with my other early purchases at that time lol. I haven't had one since, but still love the look of that coral, especially when feeding at night. Looking to try one again soon and hopefully my husbandry has improved....

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

My first coral was an Atlantic rose coral, Manicina areolata. It cost me $2.99 in 1974. It died in a few weeks (no lights) but a tiny feather duster on it lived for quite some time.

Jay

 

[rwreef]

What's the FIRST coral you ever bought?

Oh my gosh,, for me,, we're talking 2007.... but I'm pretty sure it was Yellow Polyps

For some reason everyone thinks they're invasive and ugly and only one step above Aiptasia.... but I always thought they were pretty cool and add color to your tank.

You never see these for sale anymore

Reclassify them as a zoa and give them a cool marketing name like Yellow Jacket Stingers and they'd probably sell for $15/polyp. Lol

Yellow star polyps was my first coral over 17 years ago. I actually just bought some from a local shop, for old times sake!

 

[captainbeardly]

The old blue or green mushrooms was my first

 

[reefsaver]

My first two corals were a Green Tipped Torch and a Neon Green Plate Coral. The Torch died to what I eventually pinned down to nitrate problems and the Plate Coral is still alive but it really dang struggled and is still 12 months later recovering from all the instability I put it through, figuring out how to maintain my Reef properly.

 

[SPS247]

we

 

[SPS247]

Yellow Polyps for sure. Hook line and sinker I was done. Had a 120 oceanic fish only tank.
bought yellow polyps on a rock and hung it in a plastic box as close to the fluorescent bulb as possible.
But my eyes where always glued to to Walt Smith Acro colonies the store owner would bring in. Acro colonies 5” round priced at 75.00 to 90.00 back in the day. I used to freak out at that price back then because I could barley pay rent. LOL! Cheers!

 

[Murphs_reef]

A Duncan's nearly 10 years ago. Still have a frag of it today.

 

[casey012293]

I spent about $300 on zoanthids from WWC then quickly decided they are one of the most overrated corals out there. So small and so nostalgically priced. I might be more interested in some in a pico where they’d look bigger, but now my bigger collections have turned to Acropora and Acans. I think acans are far cooler than zoanthids.

Im currently in a stage still where I’m trying some of everything so I can get more of an Idea of how my tank husbandry grows different species so I have a better idea what my endgoal will be when I get a bigger tank.

 

[muffinmanXL]

I went into LFS with a FOWLR tank and left with pulsing xenia and a hammer coral, been on the slippery slope since then

 

[ReefRondo]

Goniopora for me and it died within 4 weeks. Lesson learned there. I now have them growing like mad.

 

[i cant think]

For this tank, the first coral that wasn’t an NPS to go in were two beautiful colonies of LPS (Indonesian Torch and an Indonesian Duncan). The Duncan has Atleast 25 if not 30 heads on it and the Torch is down to one head, dang you flatworms. The very first corals to hit water that I didn’t buy (And this was when my ammonia issue happened - More about that is in my 4’x2’x2’ tank build) was actually a Chilli coral and it managed to survive somehow. I also had a Ricordea Yuma somehow survive the ammonia spike and now have a rock of it thriving with a blue mushroom in my nano. My first coral to hit water in the nano was a Hammer but I’m struggling to keep it happy with my other coral in that tank (It’s got almost no flow, plenty of light and not bleaching it’s just shrunken).

My first ever coral was a good few years ago (9-10) and was a Frogspawn, I’d love another but I haven’t found any that looked like it. It was white with blue tips (Not bleached, it was bought and came in as that) and every so often gained hints of brown. It’s a pain the ones I find are all just Green with Purple tips.

 

[Dburr1014]

I ordered from GARF 3 types of gargonians. 2 were photosynthetic and 1 was yellow with the red spots. Sadly, that one died but the other 2 thrived. 1 was a slit mouth and the other I think was a candleopera. I fragged them many times and donated them to my club for raffles.

 

[dk2nt9]

Other: few soft "beginner corals", invasive kind, had no problems with them becoming invasive in low light tank, 6 gal NanoCube with stock light. But LPS are easier and more interesting to keep.

 

[Goaway]

1996, A Pink Bubble Coral, lasted me about 3 years surprisingly, so foolish with my other early purchases at that time lol. I haven't had one since, but still love the look of that coral, especially when feeding at night. Looking to try one again soon and hopefully my husbandry has improved....

I see a few of us had some fortune back with those bubble corals. I am starting to miss having one of those monsters.

 

[nicholas2010e]

What's the FIRST coral you ever bought?

Oh my gosh,, for me,, we're talking 2007.... but I'm pretty sure it was Yellow Polyps

For some reason everyone thinks they're invasive and ugly and only one step above Aiptasia.... but I always thought they were pretty cool and add color to your tank.

You never see these for sale anymore

Reclassify them as a zoa and give them a cool marketing name like Yellow Jacket Stingers and they'd probably sell for $15/polyp. Lol

Gsp, Xenia, and clove polyps

 

[mslabonik]

The first coral I bought was a toadstool leather coral, still have the first one from last year.