Between the bleeding apples and warpaint scolies, the UFOs and the masters, there’s a lot of room for variability in the coloration and appearance of Australian scolies, Homophyllia australis. Whether they are solid green, solid red, shades of orange with irregular spotting and striping, there’s an endless continuum in what a nice Scolie can express, as demonstrated in this very nice ‘blue’ Fireworks Scolie from Ultra Corals Australia.
What we absolutely adore about this blue fireworks scolie is that this is the kind of specimen which would hardly be classified as premium grade when it was first collected and exported. But given some time and TLC upon being received from UCA, Japanese coral dealer Marin Fish Elephant enjoyed watching this unique specimen of H. australis develop into a first class Scolie.
Blue Scolie, Fireworks Scolymia, whatever you call it this deep slaty grey colored, juicy inflated polyp accented with thin stripes of green and red is interesting both at a distance and up close. The Fireworks Scolie should serve as an example of what this group of LPS corals can do when they are conditioned to captive aquarium care, and given time to grow and shine.
Of course the lighting and beauty of this particular polyp is subjective, but what we love about this one right here is that it’s not obvious – it’s not gaudy, burn your retinas from across the room, it’s more sophisticated. Particularly for those of us who’ve seen hundreds or thousands of examples of H. australis, the blue Fireworks Scolie is a refreshing and original combination of color and pattern.
