Sulawesi Corals Part 1

Hello everyone. It has been a hectic month. Cites finally got released and we were scrambling for good quality corals. Here are some corals from the famous south Sulawesi area called Makassar. For sure, most of the best species and color comes from this region.

But before getting into the pictures, I have an announcement to all Hong Kong reefers. I will be sending a shipment later this week to an LFS in Hong Kong. To make it more fun, there is a good chance that I will be flying with the shipment to help promote my corals. I'll make an announcement in the coming days with details. All reefers should come out and join me, as I will have lots of nice corals to show and much coral adventure stories to tell. Some of the corals below will end up in the hands of some lucky Hong Kong reefers!

I have added tags to the pictures. It is turning out that many of my competitors are using my pictures for their marketing purposes. Normally I wouldn't mind sharing the pictures, but these are the same ones that talk trash about me. Like I said before, every time I try to do the right thing, someone is always there to try to bring me down. This has been the story of my life! Enjoy the pictures.

Beautiful Acanthastrea maxima! This little gem is known as "lobo Eddie" and "blasto Eddie" in Makassar. Thanks to me, this coral is being shared all over the world now.

A rare three headed Acan maxima! But that is not the cool part. Check out the little carpet anemone sticking out of the base. That little carpet is going to grow up to be a monster! It is the smallest Mertensi anemone I have ever seen. Cute little guy and keeps moving around. The last time I saw it, it had moved onto a blastomussa rock. Way cool! Mertensi anemones are relatively rare and the colors pretty much brown to green. I've only seen this anemone come out of South Sulawesi waters so far.

Gorgeous Blastomussa wellsi only comes from Sulawesi. The green center with red skirt morph comes in different shades. The green ranges from dark green (rare) to metallic blue-green. The red ranges from blood red to orange. A truly beautiful color combination!

Here is one morph of a blastomussa that is not common. The black center contrast with the red skirt, is an eye catcher!

Stunning is all I can say! For sure blastomussas are one of the truly gems of the reefs!

This black and red favia really caught my eye! This thing is just beyond gorgeous!

Metallic red with light green center Favites pentagona! This one should be named the new king of War coral. It is much more prettier than the other war corals out there!

If I had to name this fiery fungia, it would be called "flames of love", a song by an 80's Euro new wave guy named Fancy. With the polyps moving in the current, sure looks like it is on fire!

I found only three pieces out of hundreds of fungias. The orange with green polyps is truly a rare morph, just beautiful!

Another rare fungia - the highly sought after red morph. This one came slightly damaged on one small edge from the islands. It will take a little time to recover. I also have an amazing light green one with red polyps that I will post on part 2!

Nice bright red lobophyllia! Again the best ones come from the Makassar area. I've seen samples from Kendari and central Sulawesi, but none of them compares to the Makassar ones.

This picture of a one of a kind lobophyllia does not do any justice! It is beyond words in real life. I put in under some t5 actinics and a rainbow of colors showed up. Just insane!

Stunning deepwater lobophyllia. You can spot this thing a mile away under some good aquarium lighting. I wish I could figure out how to take pictures as it appears under pure actinics. The site is unbelievable!

This is one of the more rarer corals that I have encountered. Echinomorphas are really strange, looks like a hybrid between a lobo and a chalice!

I strongly believe this is a new Acanthastrea species. It grows like a lobophyllia and yet sports acan colors. The heads are huge and for now, I call these things "large headed Acan echinatas"!
And of course, these are not common corals.

Ok guys, this is just a freak of nature! Notice the large central head surrounded by the smaller heads. This can only be a very rare Acanthastrea Bowerbanki! This is by far the biggest specimen I have ever seen. My eyes almost popped out when I saw it, not to mention adding a cup of drool into the water! Some lucky reefer will end up with this one of a kind piece!

Another coral I made famous from Makassar - the Acanthastrea rotundoflora! These always come damaged from the islands and ship poorly. Under artificial lighting, the orange eyes turn bright and the coral forms a green rim!

Check out this little dude! Acanthastrea echinata never looked so unique and nice!

Ok I know, can't compare to its Aussie cousins but for Indo standards, this is pretty nice. Again Makassar has the best colors!

Purple long tentacle doreensis anemones are one of my favorites!

I used to think rose anemones were very rare, but this is not the case. They are actually quite common in parts of Indonesia. Back in December, right before I left for the US, we had a large shipment of yellow tip roses come in from Flores that was just "off the hook". I haven't seen one since, but still looking.

Red carpet anemones of the gigantea species are especially tough to keep. The more rare haddoni species is much better suited for the aquarium but harder to find. Don't be fooled by the online guys selling blue, purple, even red haddonis. I can tell by the anemone that most of them are gigantea species. Can't blame the online guys though, they just don't know the difference.

I zoomed in with my camera and got a close up shot of the porcelain crab hosting inside the red gigantea. Not bad for an amateur coral photographer!

Chalice type of corals are hot on the market. This little guy is pink and green with whitish eyes.
The most common echinophyllias available from Makassar is the green and pink one with no color in the eyes.

Crazy echinophyllia chalice! This one is metallic orange overall with hints of pink and green - just amazing! This one should be called "orange crush chalice" - occ baby!

Stunning red oxypora chalice! Check out the sky blue streaks. This is only the second one with this pattern that I've seen - breathtaking!

Metallic orange cynarina donuts are a norm in Makassar!

I normally don't like green corals, but this metallic green donut deserves a spot in my aquarium!

Another Makassar specialty, the red goniopora! This one sports purple centers, but there is a very rare morph that shows up once in a while. Of course I'm talking about the ones with yellow centers - ultra rare!

Metallic frogspawns (Euphyllia divisa) is one of the high end LPS corals. The problem is that these are poor shippers and not cheap. These cost 8-10 times more than the branching cousins!

Another Makassar coral that I made famous. This is the Makassar speckled zoo. The first ones I sent out were selling for $50 a head -crazy!

Ok so there must be a name for this zoanthid, but I don't know it. Another stunning zoanthid from Makassar!

Green and red symphyllias are high in demand. The white mouths on this one makes it especially pretty!

WOW!!! The real deal is much better looking than this picture. I took this picture while the coral was still stressed. Incredible is all I can say! Some lucky reefer in the US will end with this symphyllia soon!

Trachyphyllias are just one of collectible corals. Each one is unique and no two pieces are identical. Color morphs like this is not common!

Can you say Japanese trachy? Ones like this are truly unique and beautiful! I have some other ones that will blow the minds of Japanese trachy fans out of the water, including the Japanese reefers! I'll post one of them on part two.

Have a look at this striking red and purplish striped trachyphyllia! You cannot imagine what it looks like under actinics!

Of course, can't have a collection of Makassar corals without representatives from the Ricordia yuma family. This blue yuma is sporting a green edge - just too nice!

This large red yuma is almost 3 inches wide when fully opened!

Can you say blue with orange pimples?!

Need I say more?! Absolutely gorgeous and fabulous!!

Conclusion

Ok guys that is it for today. I hope you like the pictures. I have over 600 pictures to share with you. I will post again in a couple of days, if the internet allows me. Also getting the bugs out to post that video "fish don't cry". Coming real soon!

Cheers,
Eddie