Coral lovers should rejoice because the hobby/industry is set to benefit from new coral imports from East Malaysia, on the East coast of the island of Borneo which is just inside the Coral Triangle. The only other two (legal) collection sites are Bali and Solomon Islands but these two sites have been shipping corals for a long time, so we’ve been there and done that. However, the East Coast of East Malaysia is smack dab in the middle of the Coral Triangle in an area called the Northeast Borneo Seascape which is also known as the Palawan/Borneo Eco-Region. This region of Borneo is even closer to the Coral Triangle than the kingdom of Brunei where a rich diversity of corals was recently discovered during extensive surveys which found just under 500 coral species in the region. So what does this mean for coral lovers? Well the shipments have just started trickling out and we won’t know the full extent of what the new coral export location has to offer probably until the fall when business and exports pick up. What we’ve seen so far seems to indicate that the area appears rich in Micromussa, orange Acanthastrea, fantastic challices, lots of beautiful Fungiids including the rare Diaseris and more diversity of Blastomussa wellsi than you can shake a stick at. The new exporting locale has been set up to deal with only a select few importers but already we’ve spotted a few pieces (1, 2, 3) in the Diver’s Den of LiveAquaria. Follow the break for a sampling of pictures of what new corals we’ll soon be seeing from the exciting new exports from the Coral Triangle.
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