Cool Coral Pics!

Hello everyone. So I have a new camera that can take pictures underwater! After months of being scared to actually putting it in water, I took the big step and stuck the little gizmo into our holding tank. Below are some corals that I have prepared to ship when cites becomes available. Taking pictures underwater is a lot easier to do than from the top. No glares, but still the same problem - all the pictures come out looking too blue. Use the flash and it all becomes too pale. Although we only have old washed out 150 watt double ended halides (14k's), the pictures are coming out real blue. The corals don't look really natural under the halides (in pictures) but can't seem to capture the real look. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Beautiful Cynarina donut that happened to be just under the bulb. This will explain why this picture is so much bluer than others.

The donut actually has more colors than the picture shows.

This green metallic donut wants to eat!

Ok guys, seriously this thing is insane! The colors are not metallic red or anything but has all sorts of colors. The real deal sitting in the tank is much better than this picture, but you get the idea.

This cool little Cynarina lacrymalis is actually orange. The too much blue drowns out the orange -and orange cynarinas are not common!

Another gorgeous Cynarina desheysiana donut (sometimes called Scolymia).

Killer Japanese ultra colored Bali brains (also known as Wellsophyllias) are breathtaking!

A young Bali brain starting to develop the folds that defines it differently from the regular trachyphyllias. If the brain coral has a flat base, rather than the cone shaped base, it is referred to as a Bali brain. If it has the cone shaped conical base, it is known as a trachyphyllia. Actually they are the same species, but because of different water conditions, the coral morphs differently in skeletal form. Interestingly, here in Indonesia, the trachyphyllias are known as Jakarta brains. And, the green Bali brains are known as Java brains! Only the red ones are referred to as Bali brains.

Another stunning Bali brain in making!

This metallic red Bali brain actually has a little daughter that has split off. You can see it at the top of the coral - very unique and unusual!

Killer metallic peach, again the real deal looks better than this!

Blastomussa wellsi are always high in demand!

Small, but sporting rainbow edges, this young Bali brain will grow up to be a show piece!

Some pink palys, looking too blue - got to figure out how to get the blue out!

Strange chalice species looking like a favid. The base color is brown but the eyes are bright pink!

Metallic red and green favia are always nice. It is quite plentiful here in Indo. I remember desperately trying to find this morph in Tonga, but couldn't find any.

This picture was taken under our T'5s. The high output whites actually drown out the blues. But the picture is not bad, considering the actual donut looks pale under the T5 combo. Take it to the halide side, and wow the donut looks killer. So in this picture, we have the opposite problem, not enough blue's to hilight the true colors!

But these zoos look very close to the real thing - under T5's!

Some blue zoos under T5's as well.

Cute little chalice under metal halides. The actual coral is much more orange than it appears.

Conclusion

Ok guys that is it for today. I think 10k metal halides would work out pretty good for taking underwater pictures. I will try to get hold of one and see what I come up with. If you have any tips, let me know. You can e-mail me at joylucktp2000@yahoo.com.

Cheers from Bali,
Eddie

Sorry guys!

Have been extremely busy collecting coral for the past week and haven't had time to post. I will be updating very soon. Meanwhile, go check out the continuing " my coral adventures" - aquaculture hunting in Northern Bali on "thereeftank" forum.

Cheers,
Eddie

Bali Bird Market!

Hello everyone. Let's take a break from corals for a minute and have a look at some wildlife that I discovered at the Bali Bird Market located in Denpasar (capital of Bali).

But first, lets have a look at that aquacultured liverock that I was talking about on the last post. Unfortunately I can't divulge too much information at this time about this great man made eco-friendly aquarium rock. All I can say is that it is four months old and full of coraline algae. It is a bit heavy, but we are working on making it more porous and light. We hope to bring this great product available to our customers very soon. I will update on the progress.

So my coral adventures takes me to the Bali Bird Market. It is called a bird market, but it is more of a pet market - just happens that there are many birds for sale. The first thing that caught my eye as we entered the market was this local guy handling this cool looking snake!

My guess is that this is a reticulated python, the world's second largest snake, as it is known. I don't know what the world record is, but I just saw on Animal Planet Channel not too long ago that a 50 foot monster lives in a zoo in Java (the main big island of Indonesia, nothing to do with coffee). Evidently it was being taken care of by local village people on some island and was brought to the big island for display. I heard it eats four dogs a month (can probably eat an anaconda for lunch!). One day I will track down the zoo and go get some pictures to show.

This guy ended up being a charlatan, using the snake to get people's attention first. Then acting like a palm reader and pushing to sell little bottles of "cure all" medicine!

I was like, this is totally wrong! I thought coloring corals were bad, and these cute little chicks definitely deserve better.

Here is a close up of the colored baby chickens. Poor guys, even their feets are colored!

Nothing like the Jakarta Bird Market, but I was still excited to see what I would find!

Ok, this is a big no no in Bali. The Balinese are Hindus and respect all wildlife, especially baby monkeys! I guess the world is not perfect.

These turtles were surprisingly pricey. I suspect they were imported in from other islands.

Ok couldn't tell if this was a baby flying fox or just another bat.

This strange four legged fellow looked like a cross between an opossum and a dog. I think this is a weasel (the ricki - ticki - tavy that killed the cobra).

Ok for sure this a flying fox. Looks just like a vampire from the old horror flicks, hiding his face with its cape!

"Look into my eyes, I want to suck your blood"!!

Actually, this modern day vampire is a fruit eater. Here is one eating papayas!

Check out this strange lizard. It looks like an iguana but is actually a water dragon, a close cousin of the iguana.

Black scorpions anyone?

Of course one of my favorite lizards, the tokay gecko. They say that if you have a tokay gecko in your house, it brings good luck. I believe it if you can put up with its super loud singing at night!

Here's what the underside of the tokay gecko looks like.

Ok these are iguanas for sure!

I don't know the name of this large pheasant - turkey looking bird. But I do know that it comes from Papua (Irian Jaya)! If there is a Thanksgiving in Papua, for sure this is the bird to eat!

Ok so this must be the best looking male chicken I've ever seen!

This gorgeous Blondie bird comes from China and even has a name "Gold Vision", and you can have him for a cool $500 US. By the way, AYAM means chicken in Bahasa (Indonesian language).

Cute little finches.

A pair of gorgeous parrots from the very cool Indonesian island of Ambon! (between Sulawessi and Papua)

Conclusion

Ok guys that is it for today. I hope you enjoyed our little trip to the Bali Bird Market. Stayed tuned for exciting new corals coming your way!

Cheers,
Eddie

More Cool Corals!

Hello everyone. Let's continue on to more "cool corals"!

Check out this metallic green Cynarina lacrymalis - it is splitting into two!

A basket of very cool acans, favias, and zoanthids!

Charming little symphyllia!

Check out the unusual color on this Acanthastrea echinata - orange with cobalt blue-green!

Very nice Indo Acanthastrea lordhowensis!

Two tone colored blastos are always high in demand!

Strange dark green chalices are not common!

Single headed Acanthastrea maximas! Note the strange single headed unidentified coral on the right corner.

One of my specialties, multicolored yumas!

A duo of fantastic red/pink yumas! I remember back in my retail Tropical Paradise days, I would be lucky to see one in a year.

My Makassar special orange zoanthids!

Some nice trachyphyllias - including one Japanese ultra color!

Customers are always looking for nice zoanthids!

A rare four headed Acanthastrea maxima!

Strange colors on favias are not common. This one is exceptionally nice!

Looks brown, but actually is orange! Hammer corals are one of the bread and butter staples in the hobby - unfortunately, wall types like this ship poorly.

Very nice metallic green wall hammer!

Very cool bullseye mushroom rock!

Here is one not so common coral - a diploastrea!

Peach colored symphyllias are very delicate - tends to loose tissue on the edges easily during shipping.

So this killer liverock was aqacultured! We will discuss this awesome man made rock in more detail on the next post.

Conclusion

Ok guys that is for today. I will post again in a few days.

Cheers,
Eddie