Rare Mesophotic Acropora pichoni Surfaces at ACI Aquaculture

Last week, I visited ACI Aquaculture in Plant City, Florida. While there, Chris showed me a variety of specimens that he had recently imported. Among them was something I had never seen before. At first, I thought I was looking at a Stylaster as I had never seen an almost entirely flat coral. Chris corrected me and informed me that it was an extremely rare species of Acropora that he just received from the Solomon Islands. Tim Kelly of Purple Monster Corals found the piece at around 40 meters in highly turbid water. Chris and Julian Sprung then confirmed its identity as Acropora pichoni, and it was sent to ACI.

First described in “Staghorn corals of the world. A revision of the genus Acropora.” By Carden Wallace in 1999, this species is typically found past 30 meters (~100 feet) in lower light areas of the reef. Instead of vertical growth like most Acropora, this species spreads out horizontally, growing in an almost geometric pattern reminiscent of portions of a snowflake. Most of its radial corallites are found on the tops of its branches. It’s believed this growth form allows for the species to maximize photosynthesis at deeper depths by increasing its surface area.

The only industry reference to this species I could find was Jake’s article in 2012 about an Indo shipment of deep-water Acropora. It was only mentioned in passing. This will likely be the industry’s first targeted attempt at aquaculturing this species. Chris has three pieces at the facility, and one has already been sold. Hopefully, with enough luck and time, this piece may be able to make its way into hobbyist tanks.

I suspect this species may benefit from heterotrophic nutrition due to where it is found in nature. The potential application of bacterioplankton may give those attempting to grow it greater success. It will be interesting to see if ACI and others can acclimate this species to higher PAR over time and what growth rate they can achieve with it in captivity. We will be on the waitlist to receive frags for the studio!