TM

Limited Edition
Acropora echinata
The Blue Scepter
Blue Sceptor Acropora echinata Fragment Image. Note the green rings around the corallites and the partially extended blue colored polyps in the lower center area.
When the Blue Sceptor Acropora echinata first began to be imported into the US, it was one of the first times we had seen the cream stemmed and blue branched Acropora echinata. We have maintained this coral in captivity now for over 4 years and its pigmentation characteristics had changed slightly. When maintained in moderate lighting the coral has developed a base brown coloration in the lower light sections. Branches that grow from the corals base and extend upward have a deep blue pigmentation. Branch stems that receive moderate to strong light will develop the whitish cream coloration and new growth encrusting edges also develop the white cream coloration. Polyps have the deep blue pigmentation and they partially extend during the day. The edge of the corallite however is ringed with a bright green pigmentation (see image above). An image of the original colony when it was imported is located below. When we first got this coral we were excited to see the true Blue with White stem Echinata. It had been considered to be one of the 'Holy Grail' color morphs of Acropora species. Many reef aquarists have drooled over the incredible photo images of this coral that have appeared in books by Veron. See Corals of the World Volume 1 pg 427 Image 4 and Corals of Australia and the Indo-Pacific pg 192 image 1. So many reefers have wanted this coral but of the thousands of corals we saw exported from Fiji, Solomons and Tonga we never saw a Blue and White Echinata. There were however some blue Acropora carduus corals that we occasionally saw imported, but these never kept their blue coloration in captivity. This coral came from Bali Indonesia and we have discovered over the years that corals from this part of the World maintain and develop spectacular coloration patterns under captive reef lighting. Reeffarmers.com has decided to call our Blue Acropora echinata the 'Blue Scepter'. We were thinking about calling our coral the 'Holy Grail', because of the long search for this fantastic species and color morph, but the grail is reported to be cup shaped and is not branching. A 'scepter' however is defined as a highly ornamated staff and that phrase seems to accurately describe this spectacular coral along with our personnal sentiments about finally acquiring one. Steve Tyree is maintaining this coral for reeffarmers.com in one of his 125 gallon naturally filtered Tri-Zonal EG Reef Aquariums. In Steve's captive reef the coral is positoned at about 16 inches from a 400 watt 20,000 K Radium Metal Halide. Water current is moderate. Price is currently $80 per small sized fragment. The monthly limited edition reservation schedules can be found below. Please note effective April 2009 we have changed the harvesting and reservation schedule to bimonthly. This better matches the corals long term growth rate in captivity.
Original Acropora echinata Colony Photo by Tracy Gray 2003
Acropora echinata Blue Scepter Year 2009 Monthly Limited Edition Schedule

January
 Reserved for J. Gagel
February
 Reserved for S. Ledin
March
 Reserved for C. Conway
April
 Reserved for T. Wasden
June
 Reserved for G. Kaplan
August
 Reserved for C. Jurrens
October
 Reserved for B. Cohen
December
 Reserved for M. Maher

Acropora echinata Blue Scepter Year 2010 Monthly Limited Edition Schedule

February
 Reserved for R. Cooke
April
 Available
June
 Available
August
 Available
October
 Available
December
 Available

Acropora echinata Blue Scepter Year 2008 Monthly Limited Edition Schedule

January
 Reserved for L. Lau
February
 Reserved for Victor A.
March
 Reserved for R. Adam
April
 Reserved for CK Chow
May
 Reserved for M. Layng
June
 Reserved for U. Kemp
July
 Reserved for B. Wrightsman
August
 Reserved for A. Taff
September
 Reserved for R. Castro
October
 Reserved for M. Bae
November
 Reserved for B. Wilson
December
 Reserved for Amer

Acropora echinata Blue Scepter Year 2007 Monthly Limited Edition Schedule

January
 Reserved for B. Blenkhorn
February
 Delivered to D. Wang
March
 Reserved for Sean C.
April
 Reserved for R. Rhode
May
 Reserved for M. Hopper
June
 Reserved for A. D.
July
 Reserved for A. Majid
August
 Reserved for Scott M.
September
 Reserved for Scott W.
October
 Reserved for J. Jacobson
November
 Reserved for S. Ceol
December
 Reserved for C. Conway

Acropora echinata Blue Scepter Year 2006 Monthly Limited Edition Schedule

January
 Reserved for Marcus H.
February
 Reserved for Richard S.
March
 Reserved for Paul H.
April
 Reserved for John M.
May
 Reserved for Bob
June
 Reserved for M. Scwitters
July
 Shipped to Sean S.
August
 Reserved for James K.
September
 Reserved for Sue T.
October
 REserved for E. Chang
November
 Reserved for Charles O.
December
 Reserved for Jerry G.

Acropora echinata Blue Scepter Year 2005 Monthly Limited Edition Schedule

January
 Reserved for Oliver A.
February
 Reserved for Robert M.
March
 Shipped to K. Talbot
April
 Shipped to Brian W.
May
 Shipped to Wade M.
June
 Shipped to J. Trinidad
July
 Traded at 2006 SW-CFM
August
 CFM Auction
September
 Shipped to Ed B.
October
 CFM Auction
November
 CFM Auction
December
 Reserved for Charles S.

Acropora echinata Blue Scepter Year 2004 Monthly Limited Edition Schedule

January
 Shipped to M. Harrington
February
 Picked up by Eric S.
March
 Shipped to Chris K.
April
 Shipped to Ray R.
May
 Sold at 2006 SW-CFM
June
 Shipped to Tom B.
July
 Shipped to Ara D.
August
 Cancelled
September
 Shipped to Richard C.
October
 Shipped to P. Chung
November
 Shipped to Jeremy S.
December
 Shipped to George S.

Acropora echinata Blue Scepter Year 2003 Monthly Limited Edition Schedule

December
 Picked up by Tracy Gray

To inquire about reserving a limited edition farmed fragment of this coral please send email to reeffarmers@aceweb.com.
Copyright © 2003 by Reeffarmers All Rights Reserved.
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