"Named" Montiporas

[davelin315]

I am curious as many seem to have the same thing going on that I do, Montiporas seem to change to different "kinds" based on light. I have a pokerstar from Doug that I burned and bleached and now that it's coming back it's looking like a rainbow a bit. I have "rainbows" from other people that look like supermans, and I have supermans that look like neither...

 

So, how much of this is due to lighting? Any other experiences out there?

 

This question came up because I was at Doug's and noticed that out of the frags he gave me before, only two of them really resemble the corals in his tank any longer and I am guessing that it's because of different lights (based on growth, his tank is far healthier than mine).

[Coral Hind]

I think it has a lot to do with the lighting used. I once switched from 10K to 20K bulbs and I saw a big drop in growth rates as well the corals shifting colors over the year that I ran those bulbs. I even tried to increase the photo period by two hours but it didn't help. I switched back to 10K bulbs and the growth rates returned as well as some but not all of the colors.

 

I think the type of lighting also has an effect on how the coral appear. I recently got some Zoanthids from a tank with T5s on it and they look really different under my metal halide lighting. Probably just a color spectum thing.

 

Is he running the same bulbs as you?

[davelin315]

No, different bulb and ballast combinations.

[dbartco]

there have been many studies about zooxanthellae swap between corals. May just be that, especially when they bleach out first.

[lanman]

I think to some degree they 'morph' - change color permanently. Leishman's 'wild blue' zoa's did that for me. They were bright blue for over a year... then started changing colors in the same tank, same lights. Once they turned 'grey-blue', it didn't seem to matter where I put them - they stayed that way.

 

My 'pokerstar' from Dr. Mac is a nice color - but it's never attained the green on blue that is the attribute of a 'pokerstar. When the main colony was at its largest, it was at it's greenest. After I fragged it - the somewhat smaller main colony lost most of the 'green' color, and the frags have never had the green, but are starting to get it as they reach the edges of the frag disks.

 

On the other hand - a 'superman' that I got from a club member has stayed superman through all cutting, hacking, chopping, good water and bad.

 

I have a 'rainbow' that went through all kinds of color changes - but now, growing like crazy, and high up in my 240 - it just stays brown with red polyps all the time.

 

If you figure it out - let us all know!!

 

bob