Pectinia is one of the most overlooked coral genera of all the LPS stony corals and for good reason too. Until recently all the Pectinia that were collected for the aquarium trade were brown, grey or greenish with boring shapes and wicked sweeper tentacles. Only about one colony in a hundred Pectinia showed any kind of potential coloration on the same level as the infamous Space Invader Pectinia.
Earlier this year Greenwich Aquaria tipped us off to some fantastic plating Pectinia corals from Sulawesi which singlehandedly put this coral genus on the map of serious coral reefers. All year long we’ve been seeing more and more of the colonies of Pectinia plates but while touring South Florida last week we got a sweet look at a whole crop of juicy brilliant plating Pectinia at Miami wholesaler Global Oceanic Life.
Regardless of where they are coming from, these “new” plating Pectinia corals are intense and come in a wide array of truly stunning colors. Bright greens contrasted by dark browns and rich mauves with colored corallites and or growth margins – could you seriously want any more from a hardy and colorful corals? The best part of these exciting corals is that unlike the one-in-a-hundred colorful Echinophyllia and Oxypora chalice corals, these plating Pectinia are being imported in such numbers that no one will be forced to pay extortionist sums for individual frag-buggers.
Whole colonies of these plating Pectinia should be retailing in the neighborhood of $150 to $250 for dozens of corallites with 2-4 eye frags costing anywhere from as little as $40 to $80. While we don’t have one yet you can be sure that the plating Pectinia is high on our list of corals to get and we’ll be looking out for just the right one to compliment the home chalice and plating coral aquariums.
