My Palau Nepthea and Purple Xenia

[Patwa]

Hey.....snapped these pics last weekend.....thought i'd share it with you all :) hope you enjoy!

Palau Green Tree Coral (nepthea sp.)
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g237/Patwa2/65gal%20Lionfish%20Tank/IMG_0142.jpg

purple xenia
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g237/Patwa2/65gal%20Lionfish%20Tank/IMG_0145.jpg

side by side
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g237/Patwa2/65gal%20Lionfish%20Tank/IMG_0149.jpg


and yeah, that is pretty much exactly how intense the green is in person.......all I did in photoshop was drop the brightness down a bit and do some sharpening...that's it!

Zach

[jhildebrand]

Wow, good stuff! I love nepthea when it's happy. I'd take care of those flatworms though... :)

[Patwa]

word up....flatworms ....when you can't beat 'em join 'em!....they do nothing but look like craaaaap!

Zach

[redfishsc]

Good heavens! That is GREEEEEN!

Well, and blue!

But man, that is greeeen!


I love it. Thanks for sharing that.

[djmx2002]

wow beautiful colors under what kind of lights were those pictures taken?

[gflat65]

Nice Zach. Does the debate still continue with the Genus of the Xenia? I wish I could get my hands on a Palau...

I've got one similar, but it is more blue than purple (esp from the top). Front shots don't do it justice, but here are some with the foot.

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c131/gflat65/Elec-blue-cespit-top.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c131/gflat65/elec-blue-cespit-side01.jpg

[yiliyang]

That green is gorgeous. I love it. I have a small frag of that leather, I hope mine gets to be so green.

thanks for sharing.

Yili

[Patwa]

thanks for all the kind words, guys :)

[Patwa]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13892439#post13892439 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gflat65
Nice Zach. Does the debate still continue with the Genus of the Xenia? I wish I could get my hands on a Palau...

I've got one similar, but it is more blue than purple (esp from the top). Front shots don't do it justice, but here are some with the foot.


Hey...nice shots.. your xenia is looking very cool! i'm sure the debate still continues.....I gave up on that thread; i said what I had to say....hell, the main dude was just soo smug and arrogant....can't deal with people like that.

but yeah...whatever it is, it's sweet! if you're ever in Toronto, you are more than welcome to swing by...you can see just how green the Palau is in person!

and FWIW, i'm getting another species of green nepthea soon - just as green, but with WHIITE-ish polyps....ooooohhh I can't wait!

Zach

[gflat65]

Can't wait to see pics of new Nephthea when you get it:).

[ReneX]

Holy cow! Those are some pretty nice corals :) It's enough to make just about anyone rethink the super-low-nutrient SPS only tanks that are so the rage. Softies can be just as gorgeous, and they've got a dimension of movement that SPS can't match. Kudos.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one with flatworms all over the place. Here's a hearty second to the sentiment that this type doesn't do anything but look fugly. If the population gets too large for me, I wipe them off the sides of the tank with a paper towel and throw the suckers in the trash.

[bbl_nk]

I have a line on a frag of the Palau...hoping to nab it within the next few weeks! Great pics

[stunreefer]

:eek1:

WOW, now thats green, great stuff bro!

[gflat65]

Hey Zach. Can you get a close up of the polyps of the Nephthea? I don't care about color (in case it doesn't photograph well), just structure.

[Patwa]

i'll try.......I was already pretty close to the water's edge when I took those shots....and my zoom is a bit wonky at best.....but i'll try again :)

Zach

[gflat65]

I'll work on some from my softies, too. I feel that you have to be able to get a decent idea of what the softie is by the polyp structure. The ones I have are noticably different, so I have a hard time believing that they could both be Sinularia, as may have said in the past. I know it won't be an end all answer, but I'll feel better about what I call mine.

[InsaneClownFish]

Overused but completely relevant- WOW!

[Patwa]

ok....here are the best close-ups I can get of my nepthea...no zoom used....photoshop work is just simple enhancements and sharpening.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g237/Patwa2/65gal%20Lionfish%20Tank/IMG_0217Large.jpg
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g237/Patwa2/65gal%20Lionfish%20Tank/IMG_0212Large.jpg

so yeah...AFAIK, the palau nepthea has polyps which have the same colour as the base. There's a variant that is just as green, but the polyps are noticeably more white/beige (this is the coral i'm working on acquiring from a friend....*fingers crossed*)

The more common, but closely related green sinularia, in comparison, has darker, almost grey-coloured polyps.

someone please correct me if i'm way off ;)

Zach.

[gflat65]

That gives me what I was looking for. I'll try to get a few comparison shots of the different polyps structures of the corals I've got.

[Flavum]

wow i cant believe thats not shopped, it looks like a slimer colony. very nice patwa. :)

[causeofhim]

Is this the lighting that they are under -2x 175W SE (Iwasaki 15,000K)? No actinics?

[Patwa]

oh yah! forgot to mention.....these shots are from my propagation tank, a totally different tank from the one described in my signature :)

The tank is lit by a single 400W DE Hamilton 14,000K, no actinic supplementation.

Zach

[trmiv]

That nepthea is awesome! I used to have one that looked almost exactly like that, but sadly I had to sell it when I broke down the tank to move across the country. I've yet to be able to find a replacement.

[e12pilot]

Very cool nepthea....I have a frag of it that is growing very slowly (went from about 1" to 2.5" in abut 6 months).

Are you experiencing better growth with your's? I didn't think they would grow sideways like that, I have it in a spot in my tank that was picked for the way I thought it would grow, vertically.

Mine is pretty temperamental, sometimes opening op for 2-3 days all the time during lights on, and other days not opening at all until lights go off....But at night it expands to 3+ inches...Really strange.

Rest of the corals in the tank are doing great, this one just seems really finicky. If you could share anything that you noticed that helped in the growth/PE of yours that would be awesome.

[Patwa]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14116583#post14116583 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by e12pilot
Very cool nepthea....I have a frag of it that is growing very slowly (went from about 1" to 2.5" in abut 6 months).

Are you experiencing better growth with your's? I didn't think they would grow sideways like that, I have it in a spot in my tank that was picked for the way I thought it would grow, vertically.

Mine is pretty temperamental, sometimes opening op for 2-3 days all the time during lights on, and other days not opening at all until lights go off....But at night it expands to 3+ inches...Really strange.

Rest of the corals in the tank are doing great, this one just seems really finicky. If you could share anything that you noticed that helped in the growth/PE of yours that would be awesome.

Great question!.....growth has been a very weird one for me....in my tank this coral grows incredibly SLOW.......believe it or not, that colony I have pictured is at least 3 years old...and i've only fragged it a handful of times.

To top it off, the colony from which I got the original frag has more then quadrupled in size since then (heck, that's a conservative estimate.....in fact, i've seen frags taken from the same original mother that now dwarf my colony....and it's the SAME CORAL!

BUT....the one thing that no one else has that I can lay claim to is the colour!.....nobody has been able to re-create the same intense neon electric green that my colony shows. Everyone I know who has this coral is able to have it grow like there is no tomorrow, but no one can make it appear as neon green as it does in my tank...go figure!

Zach

[gindobuck]

wow that is one beautiful coral. where can i get a hold of that coral?

[ptr13]

where did you get the pretty neptheas and the purple xenias man,pretty cool.

[gflat65]

Zach,

I hope you don't mind me putting this here, but it ties into your pics.

I thought I was proving my theory on polyp structure, but I think I just made the water even muddier for myself. Several have the same polyps structure (or seemingly), though there are a couple that are noticably different.

Skinny leather-mostly brown, but fluoresces yellowish with green, and purplish hues (just hues)
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c131/gflat65/skinny-leather01.jpg

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c131/gflat65/skinny-leather02.jpg

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c131/gflat65/skinny-leather03.jpg

Polyps are somewhat basket like, but difficult to make out in the pictures. These seem to resemble the next ones somewhat closely, depending on conditions. In the pictures, the next one (I've been calling Nephthea) shows polyps that are really open. Usually, they are more closed like a Xenia polyp and they more resemble the leather above. They seem to be different growth forms, though.

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c131/gflat65/N-Grn-Nephthea01.jpg

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c131/gflat65/N-Grn-Nephthea02.jpg

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c131/gflat65/N-Grn-Nephthea03.jpg

Ticked off
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c131/gflat65/N-Grn-Nephthea04.jpg

The polyp structure on this one, I was calling Sinularia. I have more pics to take of a different green one (this one is a lot more green than shown in pics, but has brown polyps). The polyps seem more cylindrical than the others, and don't have as much a basket shape.

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c131/gflat65/green-brown-leather02.jpg

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c131/gflat65/green-brown-leather03.jpg

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c131/gflat65/green-brown-leather04.jpg

[ptr13]

where did you get the pretty neptheas and the purple xenias man,pretty cool.

[gflat65]

This one pulses, so we have been calling it a Pulsing Sinularia, but I'm doubting now...

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c131/gflat65/pulsing-sin01.jpg

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c131/gflat65/pulsing-sin02.jpg

These are not arboreal, just cloves, I think. When I got them, then were retracted and looked like tiny shiny blue Cespit stalks. Now they look like cloves. I thought they looked siminlar to the "Pulsing Sinularia" above.

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c131/gflat65/cloves.jpg

I think I've secured a nice sized piece of the Palau Nephthea:D. I've wanted one for almost a decade (since garf started looking for them). I should have it this Saturday.

[Tayler]

are the palau nepthea dificult to care for and do they have any special requirments.

[Slpolo121]

wow that neon green what is your lighting like in your tank? mines is not that green.

[rsisman]

I have a frag of that specific green nepthea that patwa has and it really does look that green. More green in his tank though :)

[Drock169]

Gflat65, the last picture you posted there looks like a "Thin-bar Xenia", or at least that what we sell it as at the store i work at.
Also anyone know how much palau nepthea and Giant Purple Cespitularias are going for now.

[gflat65]

Drock,

I'll get a better pciture. The stalks are thinner than pencil lead. There is only one head per stalk, too. They stolon out, too (thin stolons rather than fatter ones like the Cespit).

I've not seen the Palau Nephthea for sale very often, or the purple Cepsit at all. I paid $65 for the blue Cespit that is similar to the purple (top down).

[saltwaterpimp]

I have had the same questions Nephthea or Sinularia ?

Read This
http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic94064-9-1.aspx

[Drock169]

thanks gflat, I have a bunch of purple cesp frags and kind of needed to figure out the price. It grows much quicker than the blue for me.

[VengefulNemesis]

This Nephthea color also got me interested, beautiful color. I found this on LA. http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=597+1492+2295+2759&pcatid=2759

[mark728]

Here are some of mine the darker nepthea is a rare coral that i picked up a couple of years ago from a lfs now fragged a couple of times what they have in a show tank is rare iv'e seen guys that are big into this hobby go nuts over there nepthea it's a rare form not seen much in the hobby trade just my 2 cent's ,the 1st pic is of that and the rest are the more common seen ones .great thread


http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/3968/greennepth09frag.jpg

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/2066/greennepth11909.jpg


http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/6034/dscn3179gu2.jpg


http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/5590/greensin5ig5.jpg

[causeofhim]

I lucked out and was able to pick up a small frag of atlantis green nepthia. I'm not sure how the Atlantis differs (if you know, tell me) but the color looks the same.

[McLaughlin4]

Anyone wanna sell any frags of this stuff ? Pm me if so , Thanks , those are some of the sicker softies I have ever seen . Good Work!!! James

[causeofhim]

Contact Fishman (John) on Uber frags. He has a couple of different size frags and he is fairly close to you. Tell him that I sent you. :D

[Patwa]

had to ressurrect this thread to post this pic :) ...just came across it while going through my dive pictures and thought i'd share it with you all

Purple Cespitularia in the wild (Mabul Island, Borneo, Malaysia)
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5488/13790599013_b805e1b6b7_c.jpg

[Bakes2]

Very nice picture.

[reefcoco]

Hey Patwa any update pictures of the green nepthea

[Patwa]

no update so far......i still have the same colony as I did when I created this thread, but the only diff is that it's now under a couple PAR38 LEDs as opposed to the 400W SE it was under back then.

The colour/intensity is not even close to what it was back then, but growth is pretty impressive!

z

[reefcoco]

Man, that's what I want to see, it must have gotten so big by now, did the coral kept its beautiful color with the new LED's

[reefcoco]

Let's see some picture bro, I too have changed from MH to LED's but the color is not as it was before.

[Patwa]

will do! i currently have it in my frag tank, but im finding it a bit tough to take a decent pic of it. i'm going to try and build an acrylic box this weekend that might allow me to do it more easily.