Rainbow Montipora Polyp Closeup
Photo by Jeromy Carroll
As our experience with captive grown stonies has continued to grow, we have been
discovering some very interesting pigment morphs within these corals. This Rainbow
Monti was discovered by Matt Juner of ReefReady.net
Matt also owns and operates
the Aquarium Service Business Amazing Aquariums. The Polyps of this Rainbow Monti
are bright green within the corals center section. On the leading growth edge
polyps turn orange/red. What makes this coloration change even more interesting is
that polyps located in the area between the leading edge and center section have
pigments with a spread coloration located spectrally between red and green. As you
travel outward from the center section the pigments change from green to yellow
to orange and then finally reddish orange. Thus the name Rainbow Monti. The faster
the coral is growing and encrusting the wider the reddish orange region. In brighter
lights there can also be more reddish orange polyps. The main coral coloration is
blue and the surface of the coral has many small bumps or tuberculae. This is
probably a blue Montipora danae species with a rainbow polyp color morph. Matt found
this coral in early 2004 at a local wholesaler. If may have possibly been exported
from Tonga. Initially the main body was more green colored but this eventually turned
blue. Within one month of captivity the coral developed its rainbow polyp coloration.
Steve Tyree is maintaining two
farmed sections of this coral for reeffarmers.com in two of his 125 gallon
naturally filtered Tri-Zonal Reef Aquariums. In Steve's captive reef the coral
is positoned to recieve moderate light under a 400 watt 20,000 K Radium
Metal Halide. Price is currently $80 per small sized fragment. Please note - On June 3rd
we decided to lower the price of the Montipora Rainbow since the third generation
captive grown frgaments are growing rather quickly and the coral is experiencing a
wider distribution. The monthly limited edition reservation schedules can be found below.
Please note effective April 2010 we have changed the harvesting and reservation
schedule to bimonthly. This better matches the corals long term growth rate in captivity.
Rainbow Montipora Reeffarmers First Edition Auction Fragment April 2005
TM
