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"Chatting Bounce Mushrooms with Unique Corals’ Joe Caparatta"

Bounce Mushrooms captivate the minds of reefkeepers and coral farmers alike, and the trend has had a bit of staying power. I can’t say that many corals have inspired a road trip halfway across the country in hopes of maybe finding one.

Such is the story of my last-minute attendance at MACNA 2017, when I wound up hitching a ride to New Orleans with a much younger Minnesotan reef aquarist who was making the road trip. The purchase of corals was one of the main motivations to make the nearly 24-hour drive each way.

During our time there, my traveling companion shared his excitement over the quarter-sized Bounce Mushroom he had purchased on the show floor, one of his few really “must-have” corals that had inspired the road trip in the first place. It was the coral he had been hoping to find. No doubt it cost him several hundred dollars and was babied in a temporary aquarium set up just for the event, before being carefully transported back to Minnesota. Even now in 2019, the Bounce Mushrooms offered by retailers are still demanding price tags of several hundred dollars.

The recent revelation of an incredible Bounce Electus Mushroom, discovered and shared with CORAL readers by Thinh Vu of Mythical Corals in the Rarities column of the March/April 2019 issue of CORAL, demanded a fresh round of discussion regarding the “Bounce” phenomenon, and what it all means for coral keepers. Joseph Caparatta (Joe), the man behind Unique Corals, answered our call for more opinions.

CORAL: Joe, thanks for taking the time to chat with us today. What’s your take on the bounce shroom phenom?

Unique Corals: My take as a businessman and entrepreneur is that there’s obviously a lot of financial reward. Bounce mushrooms can be immediately sliced (propagated) with minimal risk, and this yields a great amount of money. It’s a no-brainer for me.

My personal viewpoint? I think they’re really cool. I love the “OG,” the “Biohazard,” the “Sunkist” with the orange…those are some of the best old-school varieties.

The ones that have been coming in as of late don’t seem to have the same response in captivity that the original ones did. It’s kind of a tightly kept secret—[spoiler alert!]—I think they [the original foundation corals] all came out of Vietnam, but I never saw anything like the original ones World Wide Corals (WWC) got. Vic [Victor Fornari, WWC co-founder] was savvy enough to jump on them, and under their lighting, they created those inflated vesicles. But they are coming in now, just regular Rhodactis with vesicles that are slightly inflated, and it seems in certain conditions they’ll respond and get inflated even more.

People are still chasing the original strains thinking that newly-imported Rhodactis will turn into original ones, but there doesn’t seem to be any that will match the original Bounce Shrooms that started this craze.

I think Bounce Mushrooms get a lot of heat as an “overpriced Rhodactis,” but I don’t see anything else with the morphology and color of a Bounce Mushroom. We’re living in a supply and demand world, and the asking price is determined by what people are willing to pay.

CORAL: You reportedly have sold some Bounce Mushrooms for up to $6000?

Unique Corals: Yes, it was a WWC Biohazard that was very yellowish-orange and quite large, 3 inches across on a 4-inch disk. It sold at a Reefapalooza NY in 2015 and it got quite a bit of publicity. A humorous side note: Joe Yauillo [of the Long Island Aquarium, Riverhead, NY] took a picture of that coral during RAP. His birthday is always a couple of days after RAP, and he joked that I had given it to him for his birthday—everyone fell for it.

CORAL: What does it take to keep a Bounce Mushroom happy?

Unique Corals: Bounce Mushrooms prefer gentle flow, low flow; they don’t like to be pounded. They benefit from strong blue lighting, with PAR levels around 100. LED seems to trigger a better “bounce” response [the formation of the swollen vesicles]. These Rhodactis, like all others, benefit from feeding. They have a pretty pronounced oral disk, and they will take fine foods and mysis shrimp. They are not too picky in terms of water parameters; stability is key. I’d suggest a temperature range of 75-78F.

CORAL: Do you think that bouncing [the formation of swollen vessicles] is a negative response on the part of the coral?

Unique Corals: No, it doesn’t appear to be. The animal grows, and it doesn’t display traditional signs of stress (slowly deteriorating, tissue recession, discoloration). These vesicles become more pronounced as the animal grows and gets more colorful. It’s a really weird response when you think about it, particularly if it’s not happening in the wild. Is it a surface area response [a change in morphology to accommodate some need for more surface area, whether for light or gas exchange or some other unknown factor]?

CORAL: Do you ever see these corals losing their “bounce” vesicles?

Unique Corals: No, I haven’t seen them lose their bounce, their bubbles. I’ve seen them deteriorate (they’ll just melt away), but they’re usually very hardy. If a Bounce Mushroom fails to thrive, the mortality would likely be caused by a pollutant or nipping (e.g., inverts that prey on soft corals that go undetected, hidden in the rockwork during the day). While a Bounce Mushroom can be an intimidating investment for some reef hobbyists, they are ordinarily pretty resilient corals.

Coral Magazine Article

 

Acropora abrolhosensis – or the Abro Acro for short – is one of the first, most classic SPS corals that reefers ever loved and actually grew. In the early days of success with small polyp stony corals, the Abro acro was right alongside the green slimer, basic Montipora digitataand Porites cylindrica in the selection of corals used to pioneer the husbandry of SPS corals. 

We can definitely recall a time when everyone had the shaggy staghorn with a big fat eraser for a tip, and you would have been hard pressed to even give it away. Alas, those days are long gone and the once classic Acropora abrolhosensis is quite rare to find in our reef tanks. 

Thankfully, new contacts made during ReefStock Australia have shone a spotlight on West Australia coral supplier Batavia Coral Farms which operates right in the heart of Abrolhos country. This isolated coral farming operation has been supplying classic Abro Acros to the domestic Australian coral aquarium market for years but has partnered with Unique Corals to bring their selection to the United States. 

Five years ago we recounted our first encounter with Acropora abrolhosensis in Indonesia, where this species is rare. The original strain of classic Abro must have come from this region or the Solomon Islands as we were growing it long before Australia ever opened up to exports. So the exciting part of finally getting colonies from where this species was first described and where it’s more common is that we expect to discover a lot more diversity of shapes and colors.

Unique Corals teased the first images of the reintroduction of A. abrolhosensis last week and since these corals are already coming from a farm, the pieces so far have not been miniscule. We can’t wait to see what a steady stream of this once beloved Acropora will do to put this coral back in the spotlight, and what new possible colors will come from Batavia Coral Farms, not to mention all the other exotic Indian Ocean stony corals we expect to see coming from this region very soon.  "

 

Full article: https://reefbuilders.com/2019/03/11/the-real-acropora-abrolhosensis-shows-up-at-unique-corals/

Check out Joe's visit to the Reefbuilder studio, with guest appearances by Julan Sprung, Shane Danger Coleman, Anthony Blinoff, and the man himself Mr. Jake Adams.

 

Robert on Social media asked:"What makes them unique?"

Our answer is:

The main factors are: 

1) The build quality is the best in the world. Extremely strong outer casing, highest and most efficient heat dissipation in its class. It's a retail light built for commercial use and used by all the collectors in Australia. 

2) The lenses used will never burn, fade or go yellow allowing maximum par for years down the road. The lenses also have a triple diffusion technology meaning the light is perfectly blended even before it hits the water surface. So basically maximum par with maximum light diffusion. 

3) Both freshwater and marine spectrums have been tested for over 4 years (in this model) in both coral farms and for freshwater aquascaping professionals. 

4) LED spectrum is similar to other brands which also work well. However Illumagic chooses to use 33% UV and cyan instead of green for what they have measured to be better growth and colour for coral in the long term. Cyan is very different to green and is great for gold and orange pigments.

5) Fully customizable, and every unit comes with free mobile app to control your lights from anywhere.

6) Super clean profile and design, less wires, use the included hanging kits, also available are optional ghost floating legs.

7) For this quality and build, its an unbeatable price.

Find out for yourself! From model X to the 6 foot, marine to freshwater, tank to fuge, there is an Illumagic light that fits your aquarium needs.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/UniqueCorals

 

We are excited to form a Facebook Community Group for our fans and customers! We are going to kick off this group with a giveaway raffle promotion! Please read the rules and prizes below!

1st Place Grand Prize: $200 Gift Card for UniqueCorals.com
2nd/ 3rd Place Prize: Triton N-Doc Test Kit
4th/ 5th Place Prize: $25 Gift Card for UniqueCorals.com

Additional prize was added a week before the drawing, for a one hour FaceTime consultation with Joe himself, about anything and everything for your reeftank, build, corals, or just life!  

In order to enter and qualify for a chance to win any one of the prizes above you must do the following:

Go to the post here: 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/UniqueCorals/permalink/2231672150432809/
1. COMMENT in thread, in NUMERICAL ORDER and TAG a friend
2. SHARE the post!

That’s it! We will do a Facebook live drawing once we’ve reached 1000! Remember to have fun and keep on reefing!

Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/UniqueCorals/

 

• before the sale starts, make sure your computer or device has a solid wired or WiFi connection. You can test your speed using https://www.speedtest.net/ or the speedtest App. (psst, what's your speed?)
• Open up this Reef2Reef thread, refresh often.  We found the Reef2Reef mobile app has a slight lag, using a browser is faster.
• Grab your Latte, green tea, snacks, protein bars, cookies, and settle into your comfy spot.  Throw on your favorite tunes, and re-read the rules for a refresher https://uniquecorals.com/collections/live-sale.
• If you did not already, register for an account at https://uniquecorals.com/account/register.  This will enable you to checkout faster.  Have your credit card or PayPal payment information ready.
• If any of your browsers are not displaying properly, you should clear cache, close the browser, restart.  If problems persist, reboot computer (and check your connection).
• Shake out your hands and get that trigger finger ready. When the clock strikes 9am Pacific Time, you are on your way to awesome deals and winning! Purchasers are automatically entered into our raffle for a chance to win amazing prizes.

"Last year during MACNA, I was hanging out and talking to my friend Sanjay Joshi and like we do at every trade show, I was asking him who he thinks that I should talk to and which product that I should check out. As soon as I said that, he led me to Dalua Australia's booth and introduced me to Christian and Anthony. Fast forward few months, here is what I found out personally about their flagship skimmer, appropriately (in my opinion, it catches the Aussie vibe very well) named Great White Shark skimmer. Check it out." - Afishionado

The Great White is back in stock! GW-5 & GW-10

"Had a chance to visit unique corals. All I can say is what an amazing facility with amazing people behind it." - Eat_Sleep_Reef

 

Come by this weekend for a wicket sale on all livestock, 15% off with code SBW15 (enter at checkout). Corals, fish, inverts, clams, cleanup crew - all your favorite animals are on sale.

AND, if the Rams win, everyone that ordered this weekend will win a FREE premium PolypLab Frag Glue! 

A friendly incentive to make the game more interesting!

We know your allegiance may not be with the Rams, but since we are in Los Angeles, we gotta root for the best team! haha

Have fun!

Brand new to market, and never before seen, the N-DOC Organics Professional Seawater Analysis is here!

Introducing expanded, high resolution testing for key Nitrogen compounds, Dissolved Organic Carbon and extended Alkalinity. Finally, reefkeepers can balance and control the nutrients that influence the abundance of bacteria, cyanobacteria and algae in closed reef systems.

Application:

• Deliver insights into complex organic systems in seawater: Carbon and Nitrogen
• Use N/C/P ratio to manage sources of Carbon / Amino acid and control their influence on bacteria and corals in reef aquaria. (*Note: P value measured separately via recent ICP test or manually)
• Eliminate problems caused by blind dosing
• Use for problem solving and determining the need for water changes
  
• Troubleshoot common problems such as tissue necrosis and cyanobacteria
  
• Measure true Alkalinity, free from external influences
  

In a nutshell, this test will allow the hobbyist to now have an accurate view of the ratio between Nitrate: Phosphate: Carbon. Up until recently we used the Redfield ratio to define “best” ratio nutrients to provide a healthy environment for Corals and macroalgae. This is only 2/3rds of the picture. The complete ratio will help people avoid cyano blooms, help general sps related issues and make the refugium much more healthy amongst other things. Correction advice is given on the NDOC results page. For example, if the ratio of inorganic to organic carbon is off, it would be advised to halt or slow down carbon dosing. Continued use without testing could easily lead to cyano blooms. Triton now offers BioBase as a perfectly balanced additive to kickstart the tank at this ratio. For example, if the tank is pushing along at an imbalance, simply adding the biobase will light the biological fire to burn off imbalances and set it right.

“The Nitrogen cycle in reef tanks is more complicated than the Nitrate measured with traditional test kits.

Likewise, Carbon and Alkalinity exist in more forms than have been measured in the past.

Collectively, these compounds feed the bacteria and algae that cause problems in reef tanks.

N-DOC organics solves this problem by accurately measuring the relevant organic compounds that trigger bacterial and algal blooms.

N-DOC puts the aquarist in complete control of reef husbandry.” -Ehsan Dashti, Triton Applied Bio Reef Science Founder

 

Kit includes water vials, and return shipping box. This item ships for free.

 

 

The Great White Skimmer GW-5 and GW-10 made Reefbuilder's "Top 10 New Products of 2018" list

 

Reefbuilders - "Dalua Australia is an aquarium company that is breaking out of its home country and beginning to invade the U.S. market. They started by introducing American reefers to the innovative and original Illumagic LED lights but the Great White skimmer is their first original product design. On the surface the Great White isn’t altogether different from other models, but it does have one ace up its sleeve, and that is the highly capable Eden water pump. This is more or less the same needle wheel pump used in the Nyos Quantum skimmers but at a fraction of the price, the Great White is just about the most protein skimming performance you can get for the price in this price class. "

 

Here's the full article: https://reefbuilders.com/2019/01/07/top-10-new-products-of-2018/

 

The PolypLab's Coral View Lens was also named on the list! Yay

Hobbyist Richard Miller help demonstrates the Illumagic Blaze X 6 foot light in this video.