Blastomuusa vividais a species that was officially recognized as recently as 2014 but there’s really a lot to appreciate about this particular species, especially over at Pacific East Aquaculture. DOn’t get us wrong, Blastomussa wellsi ain’t no slouch either but Blastomussa vivida is the master of real showy polyps with rainbows of colors and patterns.
Normally we’re lucky enough to spotlight one showpiece colony of Blastomussa at a time but the folks over at Pacific East sure do have a soft spot for this fleshy, slow growing coral as evidenced by the nearlyone hundredpieces they have on offer. Better yet, this living catalogue ofblblymussavividais being offered at very reasonable prices, especially compared to the price of a ‘regular’ red & greenblblymussawellsi.
We are especially fond of the very largest single polyps with ornate tentacles and small bubbles or vesicles around their perimeter, showing their clear affinity with thePlerogyrabubble coralsthat genetic testing has shown them to be related to. Even if it’s hard to see the link betweenblblymussa和Plerogyra这两个珊瑚基团是在垂直壁，尤其是沉没船的侧面最常见的群体，表明它们对墙壁和垂直栖息地也具有相似的亲和力。
We haven’t combed through and visually inspected every single Blasto at PEA to verify that they are allB. vividabut we can be fairly certain that the majority of them, with their large primary polyps and expansive oral discs are probably of this recently described species from the Indo-Pacific. A few of the smaller-polyped offerings of Blasto could be some very nice examples of B. wellsi as well but nevertheless, there’s some real connoisseurs of this beloved coral genus over at Pacific East Aquaculture. [PEA]
