Saltwater retailer Kraken Corals have sold an unusual coral it believes to be a bounced Button Scoly. Native to Western Australia, Button Scolys are still exported as Scolymia australis, despite being closer to the officially named Micromussa pacifica in 2016. Bounced vesicles should be the realm of Rhodactis spp. Mushrooms although we have seen some LPS corals with bounce characteristics including Heliofungia and even Blastomussa before.
This is the first case we have seen of a Bounce Button Scoly, and one with such bounced vesicles it is impossible to make out the corallite structure and hence give it an accurate identification. We spoke to the store to find out more, including how they could tell that it was even a Button Scoly.
“We know it’s a Button Scoly because we sold it to the previous owner a year ago,” Steven Cahill of Kraken Corals told Reef Builders. “We purchased it as a Button Scoly from PM Aquatics (now shut down,) and when we sold it the first time, it had no bounce characteristics.”
“We believe it has bounced due to an abundance of blue light, although some sources believe that bounce bubbles are cancer-like. We know the original owner well so can find out his exact lighting brand and regime.”
There are lots of theories on why Rhodactis spp. bounce in aquaria, most of which revolve around the difference in lighting spectrum they receive in captivity versus what they were used to in the wild. Some sources believe it is heavy blue light which causes it while others say it’s the UV end of the spectrum which causes it.
Some think a bounced mushroom is a stressed mushroom, while others regard big bubbles as a sign of a healthy bounce mushroom. Either way, this “Micromussa” isn’t even in the same taxonomic order as Rhodactis, but its single polyp tissue appears to have reacted in the same way. Kraken Corals confirmed they sold the Bounce Button for a cool £500/$607, and as we know the recipient we hope to get a progress report in the future.
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