If there’s one thing we wish we could share with you more, it’s the enjoyment and excitement of opening up a box of brand new corals for the Reef Builders Studio. Unfortunately many corals simply aren’t that photogenic in any sense of the term when they first arrive, and many frags require real up close photography to even try to communicate what they are and what they’ll grow into.
However a recent coral package we received from Cali Kid Corals is a totally different scenario as we selected a range of larger LPS corals and colonies which are very photogenic right out of the box. In this video unboxing we unveil a smoking hot siamese polyp UFO Australian Scolie with huge bold dark rings around each mouth, and a green splattered orange – the likes of which we haven’t had in our possession for around 15 years.
Two large LPS that are a little less cooperative straight out of their bag and box is a pair of unique Cynarina, one of them is a unique mustard yellow coloration overall with a light maroon oral disc, and another specimen with reddish vesicles and attractive green color in between to accent this species’ signature balloon style polyp mantle. Riding along in the box to Denver were a couple surprises, one is a ‘bounce’ Ricordea yuma with overly large pseudo-tentacles, and another one that Cali Kid describs as a ‘cupping chalice’ because it tends to grow upwards towards the light developing a cup shaped that is worthy of the chalice name.
The video unboxing of these six new larger corals we received was preceded by just a sneak peek of how the coral tanks are doing at the studio, especially the densely packed coral flats and our Flagship aquarium that will star in an upcoming feature. We used to get most of our corals from local stores and traveling to reef aquarium hotspots around the country but since the lockdown continues, we’ve had to do some window shopping around the internet to see what corals are coming in, and which ones we need to add to our collection and displays.
