Post your oldest coral/tank

[less than bread]

I'm still new in this hobby but something that fascinates me is coral and system longevity. What is your oldest coral specimen and/or continuously running tank?

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

While I’ve only had this colony of snake polyps for a few years, as slow as they grow, it has to be 100+ (maybe even hundreds) of years old. We cut two heads off this colony a couple years ago, and put it in a different tank, and it’s yet to grow a new head. One of our LFS has a frag of green snake polyps in their grow out, and said it’s grown one new head in the 7 or 8 years they’ve had it. 

 

Apparently, it also makes a really comfortable place to lounge. 

[jservedio]

My time to shine! Pretty much all of my big LPS are 8-10 years old and were all grown out from tiny little 1/2 - 3/4" frags. These ones are my favorites, but I've got sooooooo many old corals.

 

This big old school Orange Crush echinata is my oldest coral - over 10 years old. This was the 3rd? coral I ever got. I got this back in 2012 from a local reefer as a tiny little 3/4" frag and is now a little under a 5" diameter and almost 4" tall. It's been through the wringer on all my moves, receded many times, and has a big body count:

 

Back in 2013 after a little over a year growing and glued to a 1" plug:

 

 

Now:

 

 

 

This bowerbanki is 9 years old from a single tiny damaged head (that was free!) and these clowns are 12 years old:

 

Back in 2014 after almost a year in the 20g:

 

 

Now:

 

 

 

My oldest SPS is my big Tyree Idaho Grape cap that is almost 8 years old. Picked it up in 2014 for my pico and it's been growing like mad ever since.

 

Here it is in 2015 after being in the pico for a while - the original piece was about an inch (also still have the blastos, some of the acans, the micro, the nems, the favia, and some of the zoas):

 

 

And a few months ago on the exact same rock in my 50g - both the caps together are a little over 16" across (the merulina is 10 years old and the micro is 8 years old as well) and gets fragged heavily every couple of months:

 

 

 

I also have some old nems, too. My "famous" teeny tiny rainbow maxi-mini is over 7 years old:

 

 

Here's my favorite picture from my 20g, which ran for 10 years, 1 month, and 11 days before being transferred to the 50g:

[less than bread]

Wow guys incredible stuff. I love seeing my little coral frags grow and I just imagine what my tank could look like in 10 years

[Clownfish king]

I haven’t been around long (only two years) but my oldest coral is probably my 1 1/2 year old toadstool. 
Technically I have a GSP that’s been around for two years but it just doesn’t grow for some reason (prolly cause gha started growing between polyps.

I’ll show you both i guess

[Nano sapiens]

Ok, I'll play 🙂

 

System:  Coming up on 14 years:

 

 

 

Oldest stony coral:  Leptastrea (25 years):

 

 

 

Oldest soft coral:  Ricordia florida (green, orange & blue) - 13 years):

 

 

 

Honorable mention:  Orange Ricordia yuma (25 years - RIP 2021):

 

[LazyFish]

I need some pictures but I have a colony of some red shrooms and brown and green button pallys that were my first corals in my first tank back in 2006 my grandis pally colony is almost that old maby 2008.  My slit pore gorg is prety old like 8 or 9 I have some rfa about the same age. My cabage , Kenya and toadstool are probly like 7.

[M. Tournesol]

1 hour ago, Nano sapiens said:

Ok, I'll play 🙂

 

System:  Coming up on 14 years:

Whoaa! How did you control the growth of your coral to not have a zoa, shroom, ... dominant reef for 14 years.

What is the extent of coral warfare in your tank?

[travoose]

2 hours ago, Nano sapiens said:

Ok, I'll play 🙂

 

System:  Coming up on 14 years:

 

 

 

Oldest stony coral:  Leptastrea (25 years):

 

 

 

Oldest soft coral:  Ricordia florida (green, orange & blue) - 15 years):

 

 

 

Honorable mention:  Orange Ricordia yuma (25 years - RIP 2021):

 

Those rics are awesome, I’ve always had bad luck with them in my tanks. 

[travoose]

Poor pictures…but nonetheless, one single head of Frogspawn purchased for $30.  Five years later, a new tank, multiple frags given to friends, I still have two separate colonies each with about 15-20 heads. 

[Nano sapiens]

2 hours ago, M. Tournesol said:

Whoaa! How did you control the growth of your coral to not have a zoa, shroom, ... dominant reef for 14 years.

What is the extent of coral warfare in your tank?

1.  No Discosoma mushrooms (tend to produce 'floaters' that settle anywhere they can)

2.  Keep all mushrooms on their own rocks isolated from other corals (mushrooms often harm or kill their neighbors)

2.  Proper lighting intensity, but reduced duration (provides good coloration, slower growth)

3.  Sufficient, but controlled nutrients

 

Just like on a natural reef, warfare happens.  Unless there is a gross mismatch where I have to intercede, I just let them work it out

[Alexraptor]

Alas my oldest running tank isn't much more than 5-6 years old. A combination of setbacks, moves and upgrades, and in the end the original tank even started leaking and had to be completely torn down. But I will share my oldest coral, which has had a rather eventful journey.

 

One of my first corals I bought when I started in the hobby back in 05 as a total newb.

 

Unfortunately in 2011 I had a radiator malfunction in my aquarium room, which pushed room temperature to over 50C, yikes! Triggered a mass bleaching event, the brain did bleach completely. This is it in 2012, after it had fully recovered its Zooxanthellae and survived.

 

This is "Today", nearly 10 years later.

[jservedio]

9 hours ago, Nano sapiens said:

Ok, I'll play 🙂

I was really hoping you would reply to this and you did not disappoint. I figured you had the oldest stuff, but didn't expect 25 years! @mcarroll must have a few really old pieces as well - probably at least 15. Hopefully he'll post them up.

 

After all these years you never fail to amaze! Seeing your tank approaching 14 makes me a little sad I upgraded.

[Kayman]

First coral I bought. Frogspawn 7 years ago as one head. No idea how many it is now but I've probably traded in and sold just as many if not more.

 

[Nano sapiens]

7 hours ago, jservedio said:

After all these years you never fail to amaze! Seeing your tank approaching 14 makes me a little sad I upgraded.

Ahh, but you have such a nice tank now 👍

[aclman88]

The oldest coral I have would be the Duncan which was one of the first coral I bought back in 2019 when it was a lone single polyp. Currently, it has 13... the large toadstool leather in the top right I bought from Petco not long after.  It is currently 5-6 inches across when fully open (up from about 3 when I bought it).

 

 

While not the oldest, the long polyp toadstool is by far the fastest growing.  I bought it as a small quarter size frag and it outgrew my regular toadstool and is now ~6 inches when fully open. Potato photo below when I first got it.  It grew to its current size in less than a year and a half.

 

 

Now: Cameo by my Picasso Clown