War coral(Favites Pentagona)

I thought I would post more information on the war coral after seeing a request from Ben.  It's a coral that was released by Steve Tyree of Reeffarmers a couple years ago and still remains highly sought after.  My frag is kept towards the bottom of the tank and sitting in a moderate flow zone.  For feeding, it gets fed what I feed my entire tank which is homemade food to feed both fish and corals.  As far as growth, it's somewhat of a slow grower.  You can check out my pics below to determine for yourself whether it's a slow grower or not.  Overall, it's been a hardy coral and never showed any signs of stress even when I put it in my tank that wasn't fully matured yet.
Here's some more information on the war coral taken from http://www.reeffarmers.com/
"Within the past year we have only seen one other bright red and green Favites pentagona coral imported for the captive market. This particular very rare morph has an incredibly dramatic coloration pattern. The main body has a deep red pigmentation that can be described as blood red. Its polyp mouths are brilliant fluorescing green. The intensity of the green and red pigmentation help to give this coral a fascinating coloration combination. Fragments of this exotic red and green coral species have been sold during 2005 for hundreds of dollars. Reeffarmers was fortunate to acquire a section of this coral morph from Matt Hopper of San Jose California. Matt owns and operates the Aquarium Service Business Amazing Aquariums. Matt acquired his coral from a wholesaler within the Bay Area of California. Reeffarmers and Matt Hopper decided to name and market fragments of this color morph of Favites pentagona coral as 'The War Coral'. The name is not intended to insinuate that some aquarists may end up fighting wars just to acquire a fragment of this exotic coral. The name 'War Coral' is simply based on the species name of pentagona and the Blood Red main pigmentation of the coral. As can be seen in the closeup image below however the coral can defend itself fairly well by extending some large polyp tentacles. On the left side of the coral in the seed colony image above there can also be seen some turquoise/gray colored pigmentation. It is unknown what promotes the development of these non-red pigments. The pigments seem to be located near edges or ends of a colony section. This does bring up the possibility that the Blood Red War Coral might be able to be morphed into other pigmentation patterns. Steve Tyree is maintaining a farmed section of this coral for reeffarmers.com in one of his 125 gallon naturally filtered Tri-Zonal Reef Aquariums. In Steve's captive reef the coral is positoned to recieve moderate light under a 400 watt 20,000 K Radium Metal Halide."
Here's what it looked like when I got it back on 9/24/2007

Here's what it looks like on 11/29/2007

 

Posted By jtesdall on 12/02/2007 10:01 AM
Hmmm ... maybe a candidate for the Coral buying poool we were thinking about starting ......
Sone, I can't find that peice on reeffarmers.From the main page, click on Auctioned Editions and it is towards the bottom.

 

Posted By ryansholl on 12/02/2007 11:16 AM
Sone, my man, you need to spot feed your lps and palys. /site/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/_default/emoticons/smile.gif src="/site/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/_default/emoticons/smile.gif" align=absMiddle border=0>
My 1/2" frag has put on 1/4" since the frag swap!My tank is lucky it gets fed everyday. /site/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/_default/emoticons/smile.gif  If I spot fed all my LPS and softies, it would turn into an hour long chore everyday!

 

Nice find Billy. Your tank should be good now so go ahead and pick them up! /site/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/_default/emoticons/smile.gif

 

Boxes are usually insulated and have heatpacks or coldpacks in them. I order stuff year round and the weather has never been a determining factor on whether I place an order or not.

 

Posted By ryansholl on 12/03/2007 1:57 PM
The problem might be, for you, that you're coming back on a Friday. Might ask about having them shipped the following week to your place of business.Or just have them ship it Thursday so that it will be home waiting for you when you get home on Friday! /site/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/_default/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Posted By ryansholl on 12/03/2007 1:58 PM
And by the way, Sone, I'm as jealous of your collection as everyone else is! /site/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/_default/emoticons/smile.gif src="/site/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/_default/emoticons/smile.gif" align=absMiddle border=0>Don't be, just sell your huge zoa collection so you can buy other corals!  BTW, I only have 1 tank compared to the 4 or 5 tanks you have. 

 

This is where I usually get my heatpacks.  http://www.kensfish.com/shippingsupplie.html  I get the 40 hour packs just in case there are any delays to the package, the corals will have a better chance of surviving.  Ocassionally, you can find them cheaper on eBay.  The brand name is UniHeat.
I wouldn't trust those hand warmers that supposedly last for 8 hours.  They don't have the heat output of the bigger packs and I don't think they last a full 8 hours.  They probably last 2-3 hours before they start to cool off.  I have received corals with them and they are stone cold by the time it reaches me.