can i morph a coral?

[tdannhauser30]

So ive seen people sell corals as morphs of others and i wonder how do they do it! is it just a change in light brings out different colors? and if you can do it how would i go about it?? someone please enlighten me

[clownfitch]

I THINK most of the morphing comes from the changes that the zooxanthellae go through while acclimating to different types of lighting as well as nutrient levels.

 

For example. In August I purchased a Strawberry Lemonade Acro from a local reefer. It was all a yellow mustard color with red polyps. After nearly 3 months in my tank it has turned a pale green with the yellow mustard growth tips and red polyps. Or another good example the Red Planet Acro. I got this one back in July and it was a solid bright redish pink. After nearly 4 months in my tank it is almost totally green with red highlights around the red polyps.

[seabass]

Although unique polyps sometimes form, most unique colorations come from spawning (which doesn't typically happen in our nano tanks). People often refer to an unusual coloration as a morph. More commonly, corals alter their color as a result in changes in things such as lighting or phosphate; but they haven't really morphed into something else. The term morph is also sometimes used for Corallimorphs (mushroom anemones), which adds to the confusion.

[BulkRate]

These (the two posts above) +1. A "morph" of a coral is going to look & stay about the same with some minor variations from one tank to the next. Usually the result of sexual reproduction, but I suppose mutation could also produce something along those lines as well. "Color shifting" (no idea the correct term for it) results from a coral's pigmentation changing as it adjusts to water quailty/lighing/temperature difference and is a transient thing form one reef tank to the next.

 

Example - I have a bunch of ricordeas in my tank that are in no way similar in coloration to what they were when they were bought or went in over a year or two ago. They've changed their colors significantly at least 3 times, once due to lighting and the others when I changed salt mixes/water change/feeding regimens. If I sold these now-metallic purple-blue ones as BulkRate Alloy Rims the buyers would probably be irritated to fine their "LE" colors something very different within a couple months. Not a morph.

 

Other example - I have a large-ish (for a nano tank) colony of Eagle Eye/Whammin' Watermelon zoas. A few of them (out of 50-75 or so) have developed a florescent green splotch across the central disk of a couple of the polyps... it's quite striking. IF I were to cut off one or two of these, and IF the new polyps grew out from them continued to exhibit this different pigmentation, and IF I were to put some of these cuttings into other tanks and IF they grew out true... THEN I might have a legitimate "morph" and could slap a moniker on them as BulkRate Eagle Cataracts . And morphology would be mine! ;-)

[tdannhauser30]

thank you you all were very informative and helpful. I understand how it woks now and what is actually happening.

[BulkRate]

Glad to be of assistance (sorry about the typos above - browser-based spell checking is NOT your friend). It took me a while to learn the difference as well (as witnessed in earlier posts - yeesh). And a fair number of people selling corals to this day and beyond may never get it, either.

 

BTW, I STOPPED buying "premium" ricordeas for just the above reason... found that all to often the spectacular colors/patterns were either transitory or Photoshopped into being. On the other hand TRADING them locally has been fun & rewarding. Since adding an anemone shrimp a few months back they seem to grow and divide much faster then any time in my tank's prior existence - several local stores have been willing to do 2-3 for 1 trades for colors I don't already have.... and at least SOME of them surely aren't going to end up turning yellow or green.