Platygyra Maze Brain Coral

Glowing in the picture above is a Platygyra Maze Brain Coral. This coral, among other “brain” corals is a very common coral on wild reefs. They can grow into massive colonies and can extend their tentacles great distances. These tentacles lazily flow in the current and can sting other corals nearby. Additionally, it’s quite fun to watch these corals eat. They can inflate dramatically and engulf food right in front of your eyes.

Red Doughnut Cynaria

Here’s another gorgeous red Cynaria coral. These corals are very fleshy and can swell up to huge proportions. Keep this in mind when finding a resting spot for your Doughnut Coral. If they are too close to a neighboring coral, the Cynaria will probably sting it.

Green Hammer Coral

We’re back at the AquariumPix Photoblog. We took a slight hiatus due to life getting in the way, but we’ll be back to uploading pictures for you to enjoy.

The image above is a closeup of a green hammer coral, the one pictured in our website’s header. This coral is a favorite among mixed reef aquarium keepers, since they have large, fleshy polyps but maintain a hard skeleton and don’t spread like wildfire.

Red and Green War Coral

This stunning Red and Green War Coral used to be a very hot item. Steve Tyree made this coral famous, and was charging $150 for a small fragment. There was even a waiting list on the Tyree War Corals that was several years long at one point. Today, these corals have come down in price quite a bit, though they are still fairly expensive when compared to other corals.

Green and Red Blastomussa

Blastomussa wellsi, or Blasto for short, is a highly sought after coral in the aquarium trade. They are not very common and can be quite pretty, allowing them to sell for $50 or more for a small frag.

Green Torch Coral

This has got to be one of my favorite coral pictures. This is a photo of a neon green Torch coral with fairly long polyps. These corals are very similar to Frogspawn and Hammer corals, only differing in the shape and length of their polyps.

Purple Duncanopsammia axifuga

When I originally stumbled across this coral I was quite impressed. Most Duncan corals come in the standard green, but as you can tell from the picture above, this coral is purple with a slight bit of green on the tips. Despite the drastic color differences between green and purple individuals, there is only one species of Duncan…the Duncanopsammia axifuga.

Neon Green Kryptonite Candy Cane

I know we already posted a picture of a Neon Green Candy Cane, but I couldn’t resist posting this one as well. This candy cane is a much larger colony than the one we previously discussed. It is also a more neon color. And as with other LPS, these corals have large fleshy polyps covering hard calcium-based skeletons.

Green with Pink Tips Frogspawn

Frogspawn corals, much like hammer and torch corals, have a hard calcium skeleton adorned with huge fleshy polyps. The polyps of the frogspawn very easily resemble their namesake…the spawn of frogs, or frog eggs. If you’ve even been in/near a pond in springtime, you’d know what I’m talking about.

Red Cynaria Doughnut Coral

Pictured above is a solid red Cynaria, or Doughnut coral. These are fairly similar to Scolymias, but are a lot more fleshy.