What's Your Nemesis Coral?

[Ike]

I bought a hawkins for 70$ the other day.. well like 2 weeks ago ? And it bleached and skin started to peal off... in 24 hrs of having it..

And thrn suddenly after lile 5 days it stopped pealing and it got color.. now 90% of the skin healed and its a teal color now.

This pic is a week old so it looks even better now... i even broke 3 small pinky nail peices off it by accident and they are growing too.. i glued em on my rock and i lucked out.

I heard hawkins csn be really hard.. and i almost lost mine.. this is one fragile coral for sure.. itll break even from the slightest miss touch

Did you get it from ORA or a hobbyist? I guess the Hawkins I have has been getting fragged and passed around for 10+ years so it doesn't need to adapt in the same way the ones from ORA do. It's cool that it made a comeback for you!

 

[Ike]

It would be nice to know what the story is with Red Dragon. I feel like it's flow related once it starts forming into a larger colony, but that's totally speculation. I've had too many instances where I will lose a portion of my colony, or the full thing, for no good reason and have other colonies in the same system just keep growing like a weed.

 

[scchase]

Red Dragon is the only one I have never had long term success with over multiple frags, close second is Green Slimer

 

[Sailfinguy21]

Did you get it from ORA or a hobbyist? I guess the Hawkins I have has been getting fragged and passed around for 10+ years so it doesn't need to adapt in the same way the ones from ORA do. It's cool that it made a comeback for you!

I got it from petco and petco got it from ORA was on a black plastic ORA plug

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I hope this will be one
One day soon

 

[road_runner]

Red Dragon is the only one I have never had long term success with over multiple frags, close second is Green Slimer

Red dragon grow like weed with me. I cut and give away so much it's crazy. That colony in the middle started with 3 inch frag.. they like rando strong flow, they also like boron (I dose kz B balance) this product get them to be deep red.
When po4 and no3 are low, they tend to be pinkish and thin branches in my system..

To me I must say tenuis..not keep it rather having it colored up like all the pictures you see out there...

 

[Hermie]

honestly... chalices

 

[coral-boss]

torches for me

 

[kireek]

There are several zoa varieties that simply refuse to live for me.For example I have tried to grow Magicians three times.This probably won't stop me from trying them again someday.

 

[serwobow]

Mandarin cloves. I've tried them like 6 times, never lasted more than a week. I have about 50 other corals of all types that are doing pretty well. Just really wanted some fluorescent cloves!

 

[GrouperBait]

Mandarin cloves. I've tried them like 6 times, never lasted more than a week. I have about 50 other corals of all types that are doing pretty well. Just really wanted some fluorescent cloves!

I feel ya. I got 3 or four polyps in March of 2018, and they tried to die a million times. Today, I have 4 or 5 polyps.

 

[Ecvernon]

Ice fire echinnata.
I've just lost my second one. Had a frag from a wild colonies that grew out beautifully. I fragged it for another hobbyist and it started to STN.

I will try to obtain a Tyree Ice fire next. Hopefully I'll have better luck.
This picture is the start of STN.

 

[Rickyrooz]

+1 on the Echinata, especially the Aussie wild colonies.

 

[Paul Worley]

I think if you've been doing this long enough you probably have that coral that you struggle with a little more than others. Whether it's getting it to live, or getting it to look nice. Ideally if you're posting here you've tried these corals with different setups and systems and conditions.

I've got two... I can color up most corals pretty well, but no matter the system I always have a hard time with getting a rich purple with GARF Bonsai. I've also killed a fair amount of A. Sarmentosa over the years and they just don't seem to like me, but I think they were mostly wild colony frags.

So, what are yours? Also, if you care to speculate, what's the reason for your struggles Maybe we can find some commonality between us.

 

[Paul Worley]

Duncans

 

[CurtnStac]

Mandarin cloves. I've tried them like 6 times, never lasted more than a week. I have about 50 other corals of all types that are doing pretty well. Just really wanted some fluorescent cloves!

Same here!! I run a very successful softie/lps tank, lots of euphyllias, and my cloves simply do not grow. I have about 5 polyps that have hung on for over a year but have yet to spread. Of course it's one coral I would love to have alot of

 

[Minnesota Coral Reef]

Proper levels of potassium are key to purple coloring.

 

[Minnesota Coral Reef]

Proper levels of potassium are key to purple coloring.

 

[Minnesota Coral Reef]

Proper levels of potassium are key to purple coloring.

 

[Steve McGlamery]

Hollywood stunner chalice, grows fast and sting my other corals. Too encrusted to the rock to remove.

 

[dlegare]

I get decent purple coloration from the Garf Bonsai but absolutely crap growth save a little puddling at the base.

 

[dlegare]

Hollywood stunner chalice, grows fast and sting my other corals. Too encrusted to the rock to remove.

I have a Stunner I have to remove. Unknowingly I put it in a nano tank. The dang thing has super long sweeper tentacles that sting the crap out of everything, it also grows like a dang weed. I'm going to frag the entire thing (size of a desert plate) and give it to one of my LFS.