Acropora sp. 'Purple Unknown'
Colony Top Photo by Tracy Gray 1/11/04
Around the end of 2002 a small coral fragment was wedged into a hole within a
reef rock located in one of Reeffarmers.com's growout systems. This small fragment
has grown into what is now called the 'Purple Unknown' coral. Unfortunately,
we do not remember exactly where this initial fragment came from. The
resulting small colony that this fragment grew into has some very unique
characteristics. The coral has developed a very wide encrusting base with
numerous small short branches arising from the encrustation. Polyps located
on the encrusting base are green colored, while polyps along the vertical
branches are white colored. The coral has a very nice solid purple coloration
that rivals the Bali Tricolor and the Purple monster Limited Edition corals.
The purple color of the Purple Unkown is a lighter shade. There are three distinct
possibilites of where this Purple Unknown coral came from. It was either a tiny
fragment from a true Purple Monster LE, a tiny fragment of an Acropora effluorescens
or a tiny fragment from a purple branched tricolor from Fiji. We are almost certain
it is not the Bali tricolor because that coral only has bright green polyps.
Since the Purple Unknown has both green and white polyps reeffarmers is
fairly certain it was not a true Purple Monster. The polyp density on the Purple
Unkown is much higher then the Purple Monster. Some reeffarmers that have seen
the wierd encrusting growth form have remarked that it is similar to Acropora
effluorescens. The only A. effluorescens we have in the shop is being used for
a growth study and it contains no white polyps. So our best guess at this time is
that the original fragment came from a Fiji imported coral that was purple branched
with either white polyps, green polyps or a mix of green and white polyps. In
the earlier side view photo below, the polyps initially were all green on the
coral. Now that the coral is larger the white polyps have developed on its vertical
branches. At any rate, the current morph of this coral is very distinct and just
about every visitor to our facility says 'what coral is that ?'. Well, we dont know
for sure so we have called it the Purple Unknown. 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 20 inches
from a 400 watt 20,000 K Radium Metal Halide. The coloration of the coral is
easily maintained within this reef. Water current is moderate. Price is currently
$60 per small sized fragment. The monthly limited edition reservation schedules
can be found below. Please note effective December 2009 we have changed the
harvesting and reservation schedule to bimonthly. This better matches the corals
long term growth rate in captivity.
Acropora sp. 'Purple Unknown'
Colony Side Photo 7/09/03
TM
