In the past, Reef Builders has shown off many top-tier chalice corals. Notable examples are Rainbow Road, Ludicrous, Splatoon, and Fruit Salad. While each of these chalices is stellar in their own right, when you compare them to Candy Corals Prismatic Chaos, you soon realize that the term “rainbow chalice” may need to be redefined.
When I first saw pictures of it, I contacted Candy Corals immediately. I was absolutely dumbfounded by what I saw. This piece may beat out nearly every other chalice when it comes to the number of colors a single piece has.
When comparing the Prismatic Chaos to your run-of-the-mill 3-4 color “rainbow chalices,” it makes the application of the term seem laughable. This colony should set the standard and certainly puts the rainbow in rainbow chalice.
A quick look at any of the images, and you can get lost when beginning to count the different shades of primary colors on the piece: blue, green, yellow, purple, orange, red, pink, and magenta, and about three shades of each. Some of the rarest colors to see in chalice corals are yellow and purple—thus, the inclusion of both of those colors in the piece and every other one present automatically compounds its rarity.
In addition to the different streaks and blotches of color, it also has multi-colored mouths and eyes. Many chalices won’t express multiple colors on their eyes even if their base has many colors; thus, this phenotypic distinction differentiates the piece further.
The piece was originally imported from Indonesia and has been in captivity for two months. I spoke with the owner, Afnan, who stated he was not making frags at this time and would continue to hold the piece.
Seeing how this piece changes with more time in captivity will be exciting. If you want to see some of the other pieces Candy Corals has for sale, you can view them here. Remember that Candy Corals is located in Ontario, Canada.
Wow, that chalice is absolutely stunning! I wonder how many different species of zooxanthellae are present.