Australia

Is this the ‘True’ Montipora capricornis?

For so many years, we thought we saw Montipora capricornis everywhere. So many people were use that name for just any about any cup-shaped or plating Monti including M. foliosa, M. florida or M. aequituberculata was labelled a ‘Monti Cap’.…

Welcome to Gold Chalice central!

Chalice corals hit the scene in a huge way and now have been popular for quite a while, but since the Indonesian Coral ban, some corals we took for granted have nearly disappeared. Australian Chalice corals are pretty nice, but…

It’s Still Hard to Believe the Colors of Micro Lord Corals

Recently we came across a series of pictures taken by Ultra Coral Australia. Shots of some of their new collection of Rainbow Micro Lords, aka Micromussa lordhowensis, and we couldn’t resist to share some with you. UCA is starting to…

The Beach Bum Montipora is from a different planet!

Diving along the Great Barrier Reef, under the guidance from master coral collector, Nic Dos Santos from Ultra Coral Australia, we had the opportunity to see a lot of very nice corals. On one of these dive, at an offshore…

This is Where Micro Lord Corals Come From

Nic from Ultra Coral Australia gave us the chance to visit the land of Micromussa lordhowensis, or ‘Acans land’ and boy, this place didn’t disappoint us. We got lucky to see in their habitat, all the most popular varieties of…

Proper Collection on a ‘Perfect’ Stony Coral Reef

As soon as we landed in Mackay, Nic from Ultra Coral Australia took us on a dive through the last bit of a good weather window. He took us on a reef that he regularly visits to Harvest Acropora and similar…

Understanding the Ideal Australian Coral Habitat

Having learnt my Acros while living in Indonesia, I’ve grown up as an inshore reef stony coral freak because offshore reefs conditions are almost impossible to find in Indonesia. Even though we can find some of the species there, they…

Alveopora are NOT a Flowerpot Coral After All!

Following our series of articles on changes in coral classification after a massive genetic analysis, there is one more coral that got moved in quite a surprising way – Alveopora. Alveopora used to be the flowerpot coral with 12 fat tentacle,…

What Happened to the Symphyllia?

Recently in Australia, a good friend asked us to check some of his very nice rainbow Symphyllia he’s got. We didn’t recall seeing any in Australia yet, so we were very intrigued. We love rainbow Symphyllia, the ones we get…

New Variety of Dragon Fruit Acro from the Great Barrier Reef

While diving out the incredibly reach inner reefs of Southern Great Barrier Reef with Nic from Ultra Coral Australia, we found yet another insane piece of Acro…  The crazy thing with this Dragon Fruit Acro, is that it harbors the…