Chalice corals are raging hot and despite the overpriced frags, there are still plenty of coral vendors and growers out there who are willing to charge a fair price for these coveted pectinids. One of our all around favorite high end marine shops in the country is Greenwich Aquaria not just because of the presentation of their livestock, or their inspirational reef display but the Hobbyist’s Eye they use when selecting the unique gems from the fields of so-so and mundane such as this juvenile Joculator angelfish or this Plectranthias pelicieri. The image above was staged using only some of their beautiful Echinophyllia colonies and we had to bring down the saturation values because these corals absolutely glowed under the standard GA issue radium lighting. Greenwich Aquaria is finalizing the development of their unique online store and many of these fine chalice corals should be shedding frags very soon. Follow the break for a closer look at each of these beautiful chalice coral colonies.
This amazing chalice coral has a gorgeous sleeper blue coloration that is punctuated by maroon ringed yellow corallites, this specimen is a resident of the display tank.
Do not attempt to adjust your monitor, the coral on the left is really that bright. It somewhat resembles the oodles of red and green, independence day type chalices but this specimen ahs developed a nearly metallic orange color on top of the red base color that makes it pop with nearly unatural color.
A closer look at the interior of this coral where the orange-on-red pigmentation is particularly noticeable.
The chalice coral in the top of the image below wasa beginning to develop a beautiful blue growing edge which complimented the cotton candy pink body color quite nicely.
This ain’t your everyday green chalice coral; the depth of detail in this Echinophyllia can be easily appreciated
The extra large pink eye of this blue-speckled Echinophyllia echinata really looks like a mouth.
Last but defininitely not least, this starry night mauve chalice coral is definitely more purple than brown. The starry eyes of this piece are quite a departure from the solid colored polyps of many other chalices.
