Acropora loripes
Picture was taken in January 2000 with a Nikon Coolpix 950 Digital Camera, No Flash

Purchased January 16th, 2000.

Pictured here is my first colony of a Solomon Aquacultured Acropora. You can see the large cement plug which is very typical of Solomon Frags. It is a very dark green color and is showing signs that it might have very bright blue growing tips.

This coral is directly under the 250w halide (as you can tell by its shadow) and is at the highest point in the tank. No other coral in my tank is closer to my metal halide lights. I'm expecting this coral to color up nicely.

Acropora loripes
Picture was taken in August 2000 with a Nikon Coolpix 950 Digital Camera, No Flash

I expected this coral to grow well and color up directly under the metal halides but it never really did. A few hobbyist suggesting moving this coral lower down to see if it improve and it did. It is hard to tell in this picture but the colony is already turning a nice light green color.

I'm not a big fan of keeping my SPS corals directly on the sand, so I expect to raise it up a bit shortly.

Acropora loripes
Picture was taken in October 2000 with a Nikon Coolpix 950 Digital Camera,
Tiffen 10x Close-up Lens, No Flash

Welp, two months later and the coral is still on the sand bed and doing very well. This is a nice closeup of the branch tips. It is normal for this coral to keep its polyps withdrawn during the day. This colony only shows them at night.

In February 2001, This coral had to be fragged to save it. Algae got a foot hold in the center branches and worked its way outwards. Most of the fragged branches RTN'd overnight.

Acropora loripes
Picture was taken in January 2002 with a Nikon Coolpix 950 Digital Camera,No Flash

This is the only frag I have that did not RTN and this is just short of 1 years growth. Each branch is a little over 1 inch long.

Acropora loripes
Picture was taken in March 2002 with a Nikon Coolpix 950 Digital Camera,No Flash

This picture shows considerable new growth in the past 2 months. The camera does not capture the true colors of the central polyp which is a very bright blue color. All of the remaining epoxy used to mount the frag has been fully encrusted.