neon green leather rarity?

[hillbillybjopkr]

last summer when i bought my little neon leather i was told it was really rare. Something to fact that there were more of this type in captivity than in the wild. Was curious as to how true this is. Paid i think $50 for the frag...which has more than tripled in size since I got him.....the one coral I baby the most lol

if you guys need a pic lemme know

[wireefman]

there is a japanese green toad which is an extreamly slow grow and more rare.. there are numerous other green toadstools like the tyree which are fairly common now but still have amazing color ( just nothing like the jap). palau nephelia have really been starting to show up as well and have a very vivid green.. as far as the more in captivity than in the wild.... that sounds like a sales pitch to swing you over the fence.. but aquacultured leathers are all over the place as they propigate easily... just cut a piece off and place it in a tupperware container with rubble and bam... you have a frag...

tripped in size since last summer, its deff not the jap green toad.. as they grow slow... buddy of mine has had one for 2 years and has grown from dime size to quarter size in that time frame.. so it sounds like you just got a real nice green leather...

and just remember... if you like how it looks... who cares how "rare" it is..

[hillbillybjopkr]

i absolutly love the leather...me and wify's favorite coral. Kinda had a idea it was a snow job. lol. here's a pic of it. when I got it it was the size of just one of it's branches. little itty bitty thing....i think i've done good with him...


http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/Ce...23725572317434

http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/Ce...23725572317434

when i feed the corals...it always get's the extra....and seems to be greedy enough to take it lol

[Evil weevil]

I believe that is a Palau nepthea does it glow bright neon green under atinics? It is believed to be extinct in the wild I just got a frag of it to up here in Canada

[Jscott11]

yes I have heard the same thing Nepthea is extinct in the wild

[docstomper]

I have a Neon green leather. It grows like a weed. Maybe not the same thing. But if it was I just gave a 10 inch piece of free... This thing grows like crazy.

[mfinn]

Neon green leather corals are pretty common.
Because they are green rather than brown, they command a higher price and people like to call them rare to get more for them.

[Stusdesktop]

Pic of ours, thing grows well and the clowns love hiding in it.


DSCF0031 by Em & Stu, on Flickr

[scuzy]

Is that a leather or is that a colt?

[Stusdesktop]

Originally Posted by scuzy

Is that a leather or is that a colt?

Honestly without doing a DNA sample we have no idea, it came with our rescue 40b when we got into reefkeeping.

We've asked our LFS and even they can offer only guesses. Shape and full polyp extension looks like Nepthea but we just call it our green leather. It balls up tight when it gets upset, seems to tolerate the clowns well and has great polyp extension normally.

It started as a couple of pinkie finger sized pieces and has grown to a pair of 10 inch specimens, an 8 inch one and another 5 inch one without any fragging.

The picture may be a little deceiving as they have recently been moved over to the new tank and are still in their settling in phase. I can grab more pictures that might show better polyp views if needed. The picture is a true color, shot in raw and just converted to jpeg.

[Laborator]

It looks like a neon green nepthea, these are almost extinct in the wild.

I have a colony of this in my tank.

[Khemul]

I do often wonder if Green Nephthea really are nearly extinct in the wild, or if it is just a sales pitch given by the aquaculture facilities that sell them. Either way, with these corals, extinction in the wild doesn't translate into rare. It more of comes down to identification and we all know how good LFS's, or even online stores, are at that.

Since telling them apart can be quite a chore, even for people who know exactly what they are looking for, it really doesn't matter from the retailer's perspective. The prices are similar either way so there isn't much incentive to identify past "Green Finger Leather". If it's is small and bright green, it is labeled "Rare Green Nephthea". If it is big, "Green Sinularia" or "Neon Green Finger Leather".

A similar thing happens with Colts and Kenyas with the purple tree corals. And those are easier to tell apart.

[mfinn]

Originally Posted by Khemul

I do often wonder if Green Nephthea really are nearly extinct in the wild, or if it is just a sales pitch given by the aquaculture facilities that sell them. Either way, with these corals, extinction in the wild doesn't translate into rare. It more of comes down to identification and we all know how good LFS's, or even online stores, are at that.

Since telling them apart can be quite a chore, even for people who know exactly what they are looking for, it really doesn't matter from the retailer's perspective. The prices are similar either way so there isn't much incentive to identify past "Green Finger Leather". If it's is small and bright green, it is labeled "Rare Green Nephthea". If it is big, "Green Sinularia" or "Neon Green Finger Leather".

A similar thing happens with Colts and Kenyas with the purple tree corals. And those are easier to tell apart.

+1

The way I heard it was the Palau green nephthea was about to become extinct or had become extinct. There was a effort to repopulate the species in and around Palau a few years back.
The rest of the oceans that had green nephtheas and sinularias still have them.

[syrinx]

I think they are not found as much or at all in palau, bu
t are still found in other areas. More of a shift of range in habitat than extiction.

[lhm nole]

Whats funny to me is that everyone has a rare Palau neptea but no one ever has a green sinularia.. I was told the polyp distance was further in neptea than singular but who really knows I have both types I think

[kingfisher62]

I am pretty sure you have what I have hillbilly. I have always considered mine to be a sinularia.It glows nicely under actinics but not as vibrant as stusdesktop's photo. I think that is a nephea.

In any case I love mine it fills the tank nicely and under daylight/actinic combo i find the stalks have a beautiful combination of pastel pinks,purples,blues and greens .Quite beautiful in it's own right!

Personally I think you might have overpaid a bit for the coral. So did I ! but over the years it is one of my most prolific leathers besides kenyas. But people really like these and I have traded and sold quite a bit of it over the years .

Plus it is a real show case when it spreads.

[LouisianaReefer]

I don't know if this is the appropriate place for mention of my neon green toadstool leather. Below is a link to my pic on photobucket. Suprisingly this coral does well at the bottom of my tank under 3 watt LEDs. This is a very small frag that I cut from my initial purchase. I bought one small coral and now I have 4.

http://i1365.photobucket.com/albums/...ps46eeff61.jpg

[NeilFox]

Loving the pics of these. They are rare around here. We have amazing clams and goni's. Not much in the way of colourful leathers. To be honest, I think alot of the fantastic colored corals may be more comon in our tanks because they are bred that way. Just like domestic animals. This is a good thing for future wildlife. Especially in my part of the world where our reputation for endangered species isn't so great.

[kingfisher62]

Not too mention the actinic light really makes thing pop in our tanks . Things look kind of blah under natural sun light usually.