The following are some pictures from a recent shipment to the US. Keep in mind that not all of the corals pictured were exported. Along with these, the other corals from the previous posts were also sent out - enjoy!
This blastomussa wellsi rock actually has two different colonies. The damaged not so good looking one on the bottom and a killer "rainbow" one at the top. I eventually broke the rock in half and only exported the "cherry" piece.
Another nice blasto. This one is metallic red with a yellow trim - sweet!
A large very 'bubbly" yuma. The base color is actually reddish in color!
A cool looking fungia!
Very nice rose anemone. Among many things, anemones are one of my specialties!
Ok this is a very very rare metallic purple carpet anemone. The colors are little drab but should color up crazy under some good lights. This species is the one that might be a hybrid. It has the characteristics of a gigantea and a haddoni - only the third specimen I've seen since I've been here!
Gorgeous multicolor hellfire anemone. Although not reef safe, (because it eats fish readily), but is definitely a conversation piece. 
A basket full of goodies! Trachy's, a red goniopora, a red zoo, and a couple of my rare acan - lobo corals!
Cynarina donuts anyone? Note the crazy lobophyllia on the left!
A shallow water lobo and a couple of deepwater guys. The deepwater ones develope this green rim that is just beautiful under halides.
A close up of the unidentified acan - lobo. These take some time to develop the bright green and orange. Under halides, it will look superb in one month. I have this piece quarantining under the 14k's right now.
A small colony of Acanthastrea lordhowensis! Just imagine how it will look under halides. This picture was taken with a flash at night.
Very nice oxypora chalice. These guys really need to be quarantined for days before doing any shipping. Usually the edges come in really damaged from the fishermen. Colors up very quickly under halides!
A basket of nice echinophyllias and oxypora chalices!
Guess what this coral is? Looks like a chalice or somesort, but a close up reveals that it is an Acanthastrea rotundoflora! One of the characteristics of this coral is its plating growth pattern, similar to an echinophyllia. This one already is developing a green rim. Normally, solid orange colored specimens always develope a green rim under artificial lighting. Definitely not a common coral!
Another beautiful blastomussa wellsi. This one sports a dark green center with red skirts. How rare? Only one piece out of hundreds has this morph. Sure there are the nice super green ones with the red skirts, but finding one with this shade of green is rare.
Three headed Acanthastrea maxima! The silver streaks can turn blue color under halides!
There is a reason why I travel all over to get the corals. My suppliers always has a wide variety for me to choose from. All of these look pretty good, but only a very few will qualify as "Eddies hand picks"!
So I made these zoos very popular. When I first got to the islands, nobody really wanted these, as the coverage was too little. Since then, everybody and their mother is looking for these. Truly unique and very rare! 
Beautiful Acanthastrea echinata!
Another superb piece of Acan echinata. This color morph is the one known as "orange crush" in the US.
Gorgeous pink-purple centered , green rim Ricordia yuma!
A branch with three killer pieces of Ricordia red yuma!
Wow! This is one of the highlites from this batch of corals - a five headed metallic red Acanthastrea maxima! Placed next to a blasto, this coral looks identical to the casual eye.
Speaking of blastos, check out this beauty! Check out the size of the heads and the ultra color! This is one piece that I would consider an "ultra" blastomussa. Just amazing!
Just as amazing is this Ricordia blue yuma! It is super blue with orange tips everywhere! There were three crazy heads on this one rock. Unfortunately, only one survived the trip to Jakarta for export. Broke my heart when it arrived all slimy. I quickly chopped up the rock to save the one piece. Glad to say that the surviving piece made it to the US with no problems!
Here it is again, out of the water - check out the blue - crazy!
A couple of my rare finds. The one at the top is an Acanthastrea echinata (large heads). The one below is a true Indo Scolymia vitiensis. Strange thing is that this scoly has two heads on one rock!
Of course, always my favorite - the famous red yuma!
Just to give you an idea of what I'm faced when I visit my suppliers. From these batches, I pick out the best ones for my customers. Sometimes I find the rare red fungia!
Have a look at this little gorgeous lime green gigantea! What makes this specimen so special is not the bright purple verrucae, but the crazy blue base! Some lucky collector will end up with this prize!
A trio of my hand picked anemones. The rare purple one on the left and the green gigantea on the right will certainly brighten up any tank, although the red haddoni in the middle is nothing to be shamed of:)!
Another stunning carpet anemone! This one is a deep purple gigantea.
The purple long tentacle, Macrodactyla doreensis, is another favorite of mine!
Ok guys, don't let this picture fool you. These two red fungids (cycloseris) are extremely rare. My supplier knew I was coming and saved these two pieces for me. I hear somebody is selling frags of these in the US for big money. I wouldn't have the heart to break up such a stunning piece! One really cool thing is that this is the first time I've seen cycloseris of this type in the metallic red morph. Usually the red fungias (cycloseris) is the flat ones typically looking like a fungia.
But unfortunately, one of them came in damaged during shipping from the islands. But I'm happy to say that it is healing up nicely. When fully opened under our 14k halides, you can't see the skeleton! Conclusion,
Ok guys, that is it for today. For our next topic, we will go back to my "Vietnam Adventures".
Cheers,
Eddie
2 comments:
Thanks, Eddie. By the way, did I see a picture of you in "C The Journal?" I think it was the first volume, either issue 1 or 3. It looked like you in front of a clam culturing facility.
Nice coverage of the coral picking. I learned a lot from MACNA and your blog is filling in a lot of the details on how we get corals here in the US.
Hi Matthew,
Yes that is me in the Anthony Calfo's magazine. I believe it was issue 2. Anthony came out to Tonga to help me with an aquaculture project. That picture was our clam farm. Go read my first post "hello world" and it will have more info about my Tonga operation.
Thanks for keeping up with my blog.
Cheers,
Eddie
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