What's your biggest, most mature coral?

[simontan]

]There was a thread on RC recently lamenting the decline of display tanks in favor of frag/propagation tanks, and it occurred to me that in the few years I've been in the hobby I've only really come across a handful of really mature tanks with big established colonies. A lot of other reefers I've met just can't seem to let things grow out before fragging or trading them or tearing down their tank. Consequently I don't think I've ever seen a full-blown colony of some of the more exotic corals like chalices or acans. Anyone here have any really big, established corals you'd like to show off? If so I'd love to see some pics!

 

[melev]

All my old stuff is long gone due to the tank leak. I had a leather that I grew from a frag in 2003 that died in July 2010. It was the showpiece in my tank. Not exotic, and not valuable in a money sense, but I loved it none the same: http://www.reefaddicts.com/content.php/122-Coral-of-the-Week-the-Toadstool-Leather

I'll be setting up my 400g soon, and I'll have to see what survived six months in vats.

 

[chappy]

@SRHxSPADExKING wrote:

why dont you use photobucket it is free and resizes pic for you

 

[washingtond]

Our largest corals are a Pink Birdnest/Monti Cap growing together and it now two and a half feet across in width. Both started as small frags in 2005 in our 200 gal tank. Both corals have been fragged several times as they were growing into the front glass.

You can actually see reef building taking place layer upon layer as the coral grow upward.

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Here is the original rock and what it looked like back in 2005.

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In our 75 gallon tank we have a Pagoda Cup that has been in the tank since 2000 and has never been fragged. This is one of our first corals.

 

[chieuBaca]

@Marc wrote:

wow! that toadstool is a monster! mine is around the circular size of a basketball when fully opened up

 

[simontan]

@washingtond wrote:

Wowowow!!! Now that's what I'm talking about! If that doesn't inspire people to let their frags grow out, I don't know what will.

Marc's monster toadstool was actually one of the showpiece-type corals I had in mind too when I started this thread. Was really sad to read it died when the tank had to be broken down. There was also another guy a while back who was trying to sell a 2'x3' monti cap colony that ended up being donated to the FW Zoo. These are the things I'd like to see more of. You always see the guys hawking $100+ single eyes of various chalices but I just can't appreciate a 1/2" frag sitting on a frag rack. I've never gone diving so I'd really like to see in context what some of these little frags look like all grown up. Let's see some more pics of personal reefs with big showpiece corals - I don't care if it's a kenya tree or a rock covered with mushrooms or xenia - if it's big and beautiful and you've devoted a chunk of your life growing it, let's see it!

 

[mtraylor]

Great growth. Those things grow like weeds. Very nice!

 

[psteeleb]

mine would have been my blue tip stag

back when I first got the staghorn

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toward the end
this picture is by Marc

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these are durring a water change

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[mtraylor]

Sweet pic by Marc!

 

[coralreefer]

@psteeleb wrote:

That thing is awesome. I want one!!

 

[duster]

Favorite chalice (watermelon) slightly smaller than a dinner plate. Don't have the balls or the desire to frag it.

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[coralreefer]

@duster wrote:

Oh I am jealous. Gonna have to stop watching this thread.

 

[simontan]

@coralreefer wrote:

Lol c'mon! Jealousy's the foundation of capitalism and inspires a lot of good things - in this instance great looking tanks for the rest of us to aspire to keep one day.

Pete, why do you refer to the staghorn in the past tense? What hapened to it? It certainly was magnificent though - looked like it took up the whole length of the tank!

That big chalice is really cool too. How do they grow in the wild? Do they just form a circular skeleton and radiate out like that or do they typically encrust over rock?

Let's see more!

 

[Heath]

The pictures in this thread make me feel very inadequate. I will have mature colonies like this one day though...

 

[TCUguy]

@duster wrote:

Im glad!

I think a lot of corals look beautiful when grown into full colonies (even if their not THAT great to begin with, but with size look amazing!). I've decided to stop fragging what grows uber slow on my tank so that one day, three years from now, I can have huge things....

 

[simontan]

@TCUguy wrote:

Exactly. To me and especially to non-reefers, a giant softy colony that takes up half the tank can have a much bigger impact than a bunch of super rare, ultra grade frags sitting on the sand bed or on a rack. I'm not knocking the high-dollar limited edition market - I just wish more collectors would let them grow out rather than fragging them at the first opportunity.

 

[GraviT]

Like Marc, my largest coral is also a toadstool that is over 2 1/2 feet across when open. That thing is a beast!

 

[toaster77]

great thread - some of you have seen my tank where my SPS are starting to get out of control and literally growing into/over each other. I am now wishing everything would grow more slowly as I cannot trim fast enough. Will try to post some pics when I get my hands on a good lens again.

 

[TCUguy]

@toaster77 wrote:

Please, I would love to see this.

 

[ritter6788]

I agree with you guys on the constant fragging of nice corals. Has anyone ever seen a large colony of purple hornets? One new polyp grows and it's immediately sold off to make a profit. It drives me nuts to see nice acans and favias where there's one little head glued to a frag plug. Here's my big green sinularia. I got it as a one inch frag when I first started the hobby 3 years ago. It is the first coral I ever owned. It's been fragged many times and I recently moved from my 75 to a 20 gal. mantis tank. I think everyone around here has a piece of it now.
The 75 sometime in 2010,

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Now in the 20 gal.

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