The Pink Cadillac Acropora is a strain of SPS coral from Reef Raft Canada that we recently had the pleasure of seeing in person at a mature size. We’ve seen frags and pictures of this coral for many years now but we have to tell you this is one of the rare ‘limited edition’ corals that lives up to its photographs.
We don’t have to tell you that collecting coral strains is a huge part of the reef aquarium hobby these days. There are many coral strains that are truly deserving of the hype and attention that they receive.
However, many ‘limited edition’ corals are fabricated out of thin air with flattering light conditions and heavy handed photo editing. All Acros looks great as tiny frags where most of the coral is bright growth margins and colorful, fast growing tips.
But what separates the special corals from the artificially inflated frag bubbles is how they look in real life, under balanced lighting, and especially, how the coral looks as a fully grown colony. I often tell people that the mark of a bonafide unique corals from the wannabees is how the colony looks from across the room.
This ‘across -the-room’ factor describes corals that can turn your head from six feet away, and the Pink Cadillac Acro is one of those brilliant coral strains. The Pink Cadillac is probably a morph of Acropora divaricata which is genuinely attractive and beautiful either as a frag, or as a whole colony.
The overall appearance of Reef Raft’s Pink Cadillac Acro is pink over most of the branch, with a green base coloration lower down the branch. However it’s the blue polyps throughout the whole colony that really gives this coral the complete package.
As a frag the Pink Cadillac Acro is a pink branch with blue polyps and a green encrusting base. But as it grows out this Acropora divaricata is a pink coral with green interior and loads of bright white axial tips erupting from all over the colony. So no matter if you’ve got a small frag of the Pink Cadillac, or you’ve grown it out into a coral the size of your hand, this is one coral that can be appreciated any size.
