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Let the battle for dominance begin! Coral Wars (SPS Version)

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sfsuphysics

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Since my tank is getting all grown in, corals have puddled out (encrusted), I have in a few places done a typical newbie like mistake and places frags a bit too close to each other, especially with the "oh look there's a free spot on the rock there.. *glue*" technique that oh so many of us do. Well in some cases corals don't like competition. This is just a little into the boredom that is me in the mornings and I wanted to share. All are SPS vs SPS, LPS are too damn destructive too quickly and as a result most I've placed appropriately far apart... also no hydnophora... (sorry Jeremy).

I apologize for the blurriness of some of the photos as I took these when only the actinics were on, things have been white balanced however, so you see the true color of the corals, without the ghastly purple glow around everything, but due to the lack of light the shutter was open for as much as half a second in some shots, and I took these top/down so no tripod.

So with that all out of the way... let the battles commence!

Round One... FIGHT!

This one is your typical monti vs monti battle. a monti "cap" vs the Idaho grape monti. When they got near each other they started to both grow straight up leaning against each other.. unfortunately I think the cap grows faster than the IG so it managed to grow over it, however it looks like the IG is trying a flanking maneuver and they started to swirl. My prediction however is while there might be the swirling, the cap will grow over and shade the IG frag effectively killing whatever is shaded.
 
BTW if you're expecting guts to be barfed out to consume corals, you won't see that. Plus I'm not sure if SPS even do that.

Round Two... FIGHT

Here we have an Acropora Tenuis vs the California Grape Monti (I named it this, because good grapes grow in California, not Idaho)
The overly bright acros are due to them fluorescing like mothers and actually are quite bright in the dim actinics.
What happened with this is the fast growing CG monti actually started to grow over the encrusted part of the Tenuis, however right at the tip there seems to be a bit of dead skeleton which says that the acropora wasn't having any of that shit. Predictions. Tenuis is already wide at the top, so I doubt it'll puddle much more as it might be blocking it's only light, the CG will most likely encrust all the non-shaded areas around it and will live happy until the branches of all the acros on the rock eventually shade it a bit,then it might turn to an ugly brown grape.
 
Now on the undercard we have the same California Grape Monti trying to fight a battle on two fronts, this time against the Acropora abrolhosensis (or as I like to call it, the biggest disappointment of a coral I've every purchased, as it was pretty purple and browned out in a hurry, only recently did it at least gets some color back).

These two its hard to tell what's going on, the abrol, is a VERY slow growing coral, it has puddled out a bit, its a little hard to tell but the CG doesn't seem to want to grow any closer, so perhaps there is some bitchslappery going on by the Abrol. What will happen? Only time will tell, being as the growth of the CG monti is what will determine contact most likely as the Acro grows too slow.
 
One more undercard match before the main event.

Here we have a three way battle royale! Action so furious it's a blur!!!

In the center the underdog, what was named a micropthalma (just with a green base rather than the typical tan one you see), originally puddled outward now is starting to branch up, but it's wedged between a rather large puddle of a purple tip "brown is a color too tricolor" acropora and the always fan favorite Jim Coral! The Microp, is already touching the purple tip, and it looks like it's winning the battle, no large skeletal areas or anything, but the curve of the circle tells me it's actually winning the battle of the front line. Now it's getting close but not quite touching the Jim coral, which FYI looks way cooler than the picture depicts under the actinics, but I'm gathering it'll do the same thing.
 
Finally the main event of the evening!

Two fan favorites, in one corner what the infamous Phoenix Cap (it came back from the dead!) which I thought would be so cool if I put a frag right here as well..... *sigh*... vs the always fan favorite... Palmer's Blue Mille!!!!! (Which doesn't look so blue under actinics really)

The fight is so one sided though, Palmer made the Phoenix wish it was dead, and it's not even really touching, perhaps some polyps of the Mille got close enough, but man it packs a punch. Even though this is a let down of a main even everyone loves the Palmer over the cap, so it's an ok slaughter in my book! :D
 
Now some fights on the card for the next PPV event!

First up... Prostrada vs Tort! These guys are actually nose to nose, will it spell certain doom for one? Or will they happily hug and look really cool as a result!
 
Also, the Ketchup and Mustard Millepora vs the hometown favorite Cali Tort!

The betting line in Vegas puts heavy odds on the Millepora creaming the Tort however...
 
Ok more war like action!

First up

Norman Vs Jim!

Norm's red prostrada vs The Jim Coral (aka a "tort" according to me :p)

Apparently TJC tried to get up in Norm's Prostrada... and there was none of that to be had!

Winner: Norm's Prostrada
 
Now we have some ORA chip that I probably shouldn't have placed so high in the tank vs another one of Norman's off spring, the infamous Crushed Velvet Pimp Suit... er Indo Superman.

This one is a no brainer, montipora is feeling a little sorer after this is exchange.

Winner: ORA WTF Coral
 
Now a tag team of fuzzy goodness!

First up Stylophora vs Digitata.

Unsure if the Stylo is simply that strong of a coral, or if the fuzziness just irritates the hell out of the digitata, ether way I'm not shedding a tear over the brown/orange/pink/whatever color it was labeled as digitata.. although if it encrusts over this branch it might look super cool :D

Winner: Stylo
 
Part two of the Fuzzy Goodness

Poccilipora vs Acropora Tortusa

So the pimp of all that is tort is showing what he's got... unfortunately it can't hang with the fuzziness either... irritation leads to flesh removal.

Winner: Poccilipora
 
[quote author=Mr. Ugly link=topic=5340.msg83636#msg83636 date=1235420155]
What an Ugly prostrata :D
[/quote]
I know, totally!

When people ask what it looks like I show them a picture of what it looked like 5 months ago, no one asks for a frag of this then :)
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/9118/acronormprostrataln5.jpg
 
Pretty funny.

Here's an old pic. Haven't taken any new ones.

DSCN1590.jpg
 
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