OMG. Part 1

[Yippee]

After a tank crash, I was left with a coral that had 4 eyes with no tissue separating each eye. The piece was no more 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch. I believed It to be an older type of Mummy Eye. Desperate to try and save it, I asked @Chromis to take 1 eye which was 1/4 of the square.

Here is my piece with the tissue healed between the remaining 3 eyes.

This is how the coral transformed in her tank.

My piece is finally growing (still small) and coloring up with the normal Mummy Eye coloration. I believe her piece filled the tile with this outrageous color and pattern.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Chromis definitely working her magic. Doesn't look anything like the old Mummy Eye, unless stress managed to do something to it.

 

[Wlachnit]

You sure it's the same specimen? LOL. ...Looks incredible.

 

[JVU]

Wow that’s an incredible piece now! You may have created the newest hottest designer chalice if it retains those colors and that pattern. Definitely does not look like a mummy eye though.

 

[Twisted]

I’d name it something and throw it on eBay haha

 

[Coral reefer]

He already did. OMG chalice

 

[Chromis]

Already named it Bambolina

Yea my piece developed a blue streak. It did grow out the 4” tile and is now on the second generation grow-out. I try to cut chalices in a way to get more interesting colors and patterns on each grow-out.

 

[Coral reefer]

More pics please!

 

[Alexx]

Supper nice coloration!

 

[Wlachnit]

Already named it Bambolina

Yea my piece developed a blue streak. It did grow out the 4” tile and is now on the second generation grow-out. I try to cut chalices in a way to get more interesting colors and patterns on each grow-out.

Sounds like you are the Chalice Whisperer...

 

[JGO66]

Interesting that the style of fragmentation causes the different colors patterns in each cutting. Really beautiful stripes and colors!!

 

[Chromis]

It’s amazing to me how many different colors chalices can show, and how bright they are. Here are some progression photos of the chalice @Yippee gave me. He has a great eye for corals and found this one in a bin at Neptune’s. When I saw it I wasn’t sure that I wanted a piece, but he made the good point that now would be the easiest time to frag it, since it had receded to individual eyes, ha.

At this point I thought “Dang, I really hope it keeps those colors”

It kept its colors and kept growing...

At this point, it deserved its own grow-out tile.

And it grew! It was time for fragging. I was very nervous to cut into it, but tried my best to cut it in a way that new patterns could come out again.

Now the frags are grown out again, still holding colors, and ready to frag into new, unique shapes.

And the cycle repeats itself as other chalices seem to pick up new colors, for whatever reason, so I put them onto a tile and think “dang, I really hope it keeps those colors”

 

[Coral reefer]

Holy moly!

 

[Alexx]

It’s amazing to me how many different colors chalices can show, and how bright they are. Here are some progression photos of the chalice @Yippee gave me. He has a great eye for corals and found this one in a bin at Neptune’s. When I saw it I wasn’t sure that I wanted a piece, but he made the good point that now would be the easiest time to frag it, since it had receded to individual eyes, ha.

At this point I thought “Dang, I really hope it keeps those colors”

It kept its colors and kept growing...

At this point, it deserved its own grow-out tile.

And it grew! It was time for fragging. I was very nervous to cut into it, but tried my best to cut it in a way that new patterns could come out again.

Now the frags are grown out again, still holding colors, and ready to frag into new, unique shapes.

And the cycle repeats itself as other chalices seem to pick up new colors, for whatever reason, so I put them onto a tile and think “dang, I really hope it keeps those colors”

Wow they look so nice. Are this corals expensive?

 

[bfirecat]

Those look amazing! Any tips on growing chalices?

 

[Chromis]

Wow they look so nice. Are this corals expensive?

I’m working on figuring out how to grow these faster and to make smaller, hardy frags so they don’t need to be so expensive.

 

[Alexx]

How you even cut them so that they get that coloration you cut only piece of it from the side? Or you pop out the center part after it expands more?

 

[Chromis]

Those look amazing! Any tips on growing chalices?

I think after all, the most important thing is good biodiversity. You can get this from live oceanic rock or by adding stuff from tank(s) with good biodiversity, but you have to be careful to QT or remove/avoid pests. I keep acros so I’m really careful with this, but chalices seem be nearly impervious to pests (if a chalice encountered a pest, it would eat it). Chalices are however susceptible to what I would call dark pathogens (fungus) but if you have good biodiversity, this won’t be an issue; if you receive a chalice that looks sick, as long as you can feed it, it can generally muster the energy to fight the pathogen off.

I don’t have very good flow or high PAR in my tanks.
I used to say I don’t overstock, but since then my fish got a lot bigger, but so have my corals, so I think now that it’s more about keeping a low ratio of fish to corals (or macro algae, sponges, etc that can use the fish waste). I would rather 1” of fish to 10” of coral than to some gallonage of water.

 

[Baykes]

Wow those colors are simply amazing!

 

[Chromis]

How you even cut them so that they get that coloration you cut only piece of it from the side? Or you pop out the center part after it expands more?

It’s like if a chalice was a cow, you’d grow out the filet mignonette part