This coral is very similar in coloration and form to the original
'Purple Monster' coral that was one of the first Limited Edition corals
that Reeffarmers.com distributed. That coral is currently unavailable
from Reeffarmers.com. This new 'Fiji Purple Monster' is however
available for reservations. Steve Tyree found this coral within a large
shipment that was exported from Fiji. It has the rich deep purple
color that the original 'Purple Monster' had. There are also blue
pigments that develop along the sides of branches. Additionally
new grow areas of this colony develop predominantly blue pigments.
The polyps are not colored white as the original species. Instead they
have a blue coloration that has remained strong in captivity. Growth
form is very similar to the original imported 'Purple Monster' colony
and new growth areas look more similar to the captive grown versions
of the original 'Purple Monster'. 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 15 inches from a 400 watt 20,000 K Radium Metal Halide. Water
current is moderate. Starting in July 2003 ReefFarmers.com is allowed
to distribute 1 farmed fragment of this coral per month. Price is currently
$75 per medium sized fragment. The monthly limited edition reservation
schedule can be found below.
CORAL RETIRED February 2005. Reeffarmers.com decided to retire
the Limited Edition coral Acropora sp. Fiji Purple Monster during February of
2005. This was done for primarily one reason. The coral was difficult to keep
in the long term. Some exotic stony corals exported from the Fiji area develop
long term problems when maintianed within captive systems. This coral is
definitly one of those. We no longer maintain a living section of this coral
within our facility. We were unable to determine just what the long term
problems are caused from. By retiring this coral we hope to discourage others
from assuming that the Fiji Purple Monster is a coral that could be maintained
within captive systems easily. There were a total of about 10 fragments that
did get distributed over the past year and a half. If anyone who recieved a
Limited Edition fragment of this coral wants to futhur distribute this
interesting but difficult coral, please send us your email or web site link.
Obviously you would need to figure out the long term captive issues with
this particular species. We will add your email or web link to the Limited
Edition History listed below. Reeffarmers.com will not be growing any
fragments of this coral. Reeffarmers.com does not have any current plans to
reinstate the Limited Edition distribution of this coral in the future.
TM
