Tiny Blue Snowflakes

[seapug]

As much as I love big showy corals, I can never pass up something out of the ordinary. This is an interesting find I picked up at an LPS recently. The polyps are so small and invisible when closed, nobody noticed when it fell into the rockwork when they got it in. I'm glad I noticed it. Each polyp is only a few millimeters across at most and they are an incredible deep royal blue color. I have another small rock with a similar polyp on it but it's a plain gray and the "petals" aren't nearly as intricate as these:

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee318/picklethepug/blue_snowflakes.jpg

Pciture taken under 150W 12K Reeflux bulbs with dual PC atinic supplementation.

[BuddhaKiss]

I agree. Big show pieces are nice, but I also enjoy those "dither" corals..corals that you don't notice right away but further enhance a reef setup. Here are mine the first day I got them. Unfortunately, I have xenia that are blocking their light so they have extended their stalks quite a bit.

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j165/BuddhaKiss/BlueClovePolyps05-17-0801.jpg

These are under PC 50/50 before I upgraded to MH.

[seapug]

Cool......looks like the same thing with a little less color.
This is a pic from a few months back of the other little "mini polyp" frag I have. I posted a photo when I got it and someone else posted a shot of their tank where 2/3 of the rocks were completely covered with it. Hasn't spread like that in my tank, but I wouldn't mind if the blue one did.
http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee318/picklethepug/palmpolyps-1.jpg

[BuddhaKiss]

Ya, they colored up much better when I upgraded to MH. What's cool is if you look at them from below, they look kinda brownish, mid-level, they are more blue, from above, they have a purplish tint to them ...definitely cool. Those other ones look like pipe organs.

[seapug]

They do look like pipe organs but I think they are both some kind of Clavulariid, not a Pipe, Xenia or Anthelia. Like the blue ones, the polyps are completely invisible when closed. Looks like a bare rock.

Julian Sprung's coral reference guide shows them in the "New Finds" section, but I've never seen them deep blue before. When all the polyps are open it almost looks like an encrusting Montipora until you look really close.

[mwladdicted]

the deep blue ones are anthelia im pretty sure, i have the same ones, grow fast to, i love em

[spleen93]

Looks like Sarcothelia edmondsoni, though I'm sure there are similar looking variants in the Clavularia family.

http://www.marinelifephotography.com/marine/cnidaria/sarcothelia-edmondsoni.jpg

linky (http://www.marinelifephotography.com/marine/cnidaria/octocorals.htm)

[seapug]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13127524#post13127524 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mwladdicted
the deep blue ones are anthelia im pretty sure, i have the same ones, grow fast to, i love em

Definitely not Anthelia. I know the blue Anthelia you are referring to, this one is much different. Anthelia can't retract the polyps, only "shrivel" them and this one is much smaller.

Thanks for the link, spleen93. I think you nailed it.

[crsswift70]

Here was my colony when i first got it. They were beautiful! They were sold to me as being clove polyps. Slowly they died off.. strange bubbles would form in their stalks. Then they all died off but maybe 3. I kept the rock in a low flow moderate light area and they are actually coming back. They went from three to maybe 20 now. I don't know if ive seen any corals as blue as them. Even in plain sunlight, they are strikingly blue and intricate.
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j289/crsswift70/HPIM0732.jpg

[seapug]

yeah, looks like you got them, too. I agree on the amazing color of these things. I have blue Zoanthids, blue Acros and blue Montiporas but these are a much more striking shade than anything else I've seen.

[BuddhaKiss]

Dang, mine looks so weak compared to you guys. It was sold to me as a clove polyp as well

[seapug]

Yeah, I think "Clove Polyp" is what the collectors/importers call them in lieu of a positive ID. Thanks to Spleen 93 I think we now have a name. Check out that link Spleen posted. It talks about the location and various color forms.