How can you tell if coral is dyed? pic attached?

Question

i got what looked to be some sort of hammer coral. The store that had it didnt have very nice lights on their tank and when i got it home under my lights is glows a lot more than i expected and i am begining to thing the coral is dyed. Can anyone tell me if this is a normal color for this type of coral or if it looks as though its dyed? Here is a pic. It seems to really glow under my moonlights especially so this is a pic under the moonlighting. http://www.flickr.com/photos/nanoreef/1266644446/

Andrew thanks for the compliment. To me it isnt very hard to maintain because i love doing it but, It is a lot of work and pretty costly. In total just hardware (tank,stand,filters, power heads, and lighting) live and live sand rock live sand its about $1350. Then with all my fish and corals, Oh god i have lost count but live stock has been building up in the tank for quite some time so that money was spread out over a period of time so ill guess another $1300+ in live stock. Then to maintain the tank with food, salt, test kits, pH/dKh buffers and other trace elements i add in the tank to keep the corals happy its another ammount added on top. hahah so i guess im a little obsessed with my tanks. I also have a few other tanks so the cash that goes in is spread between all of them. I only keep marine tanks now so they are a bit more work if you are use to freshwater.

thanks "ME" i believe it is a euphyllia ancora or something close to that species. If i new the dye was there i would have never bought the thing but as i said in the store the lights it was under were just t-5's so when i got it home under my halides and moon lights it looked like someone spilled highlighter ink all over it. So, if you know of anything in the same genus that may be realted to the euphyllia ancora with such an electric green color morph please inform me.

i am pretty sure it isnt a euphyllia divisa because of the way the polyps resemble more of a hammer coral but in either case the way the skeletal structure is doesnt seem to match either the divisa or the ancora because it looks like it is one head that doesnt seem to branching the way either of those corals normally do. So i am having trouble IDing it. although i am pretty sure it is in the genus euphyllia.

"Me" it certainly does! great website im still reading through it though. Thanks for the input im still gonna look into the possibility of dye but i guess it is possible that it is natural and just need the high lighting that i have in my tank for its true colors to show. No pun intended! thanks for the help and the compliment. I am hoping that this is a natural color morph cause it is absolutley amazing and i never intend to buy dyed fish/corals or any live stock for that matter. Thanks again

Carl thanks for the input. I know that some do in fact dye corals, anemones, fish ect. and i was aware of the natural flourescent glow of some corals but this seems so odd. I mean i have seen some corals really glow under some nice lights but this seems to look as though to glow like blacklight paint under blacklights when i have the moon lighting on. the brain coral i have also glows under those lightas but not to this extreme. Furthermore i have never seen a euphyllia of any species with such a color morph. I was just wondering if you or anyone who reads this has ever seen one with this color.

Carl i know i gave 007 the thumbs down but i meant to click thumbs up. Sorry just a slip of the mouse. Had an itchy trigger finger i guess so 007 it wasn't intentional i meant to hit thumbs up. Otherwise i wouldnt have emailed you for more info. I should have told you this in the email. My bad. Sorry again.

Answer 1

I have had one of those for over a year now (Euphyllia ancora)and to me That looks like a very HEALTHY hammer coral.
Most LPS colals glow like that under the right light.
I believe it has something to do with the symbiotic algae that grows inside of them.
I would be more worried if it didn't glow.
I don't have moon lights but ALL of my LPS, SPS, some Soft, and Crocea Clams Glow like that under my 162w of Actinic blue lights, When my daylight (2 x 250w Halides) come on, they do not glow AS much.
Looks like a very nice and healthy tank.

who ever gave me the thums down, have a look at these SAME 2 LPS corals under different lighting and go back to your FRESHWATER guppies.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25717643@N00/1268359255/
AND
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25717643@N00/1268362783/in/photostream/

Answer 2

I think Me pretty much answered your question with the excellent link she provided.

I thought I would just comment and state based on my experience that this is just the natural phosphors, ect. in the coral.
I had many of my clients tanks on timers where only the actinic lights would be on during certain hours, during this lighting phase I observed similar phenomenon with different corals (although I cannot point to this coral in particular).

I also have to agree with Andrew on your beautiful aquarium.

:)

EDIT:

I might add that I know several importers in LA (such as Quality Marine, whom I regularly deal with) and I have never seen dyed live coral nor do I see any reason to take this extra expense and time to perform such as action.

EDIT;
I guess i should clarify;
I have never seen any live corals dyed. Yes, I have seen many dead corals and fish dyed.
However I have always dealt with high end importers, not the cheap ones that are unfortunately common

EDIT:
To 007:
It appears whoever gave you the thumbs down, gave everyone here a thumbs down at the same time as checked this thread once, then again and suddenly everyone had a thumbs down (just a troll)
BTW, NICE TANK!

Answer 3

Hi Craig,

Jon V forwarded me your question. Your coral look perfectly natural to me. I have had several corals, corallomorphs (primarily ricordia and and mushrooms) and anemones that fluoresce both under "moonlight" LEDs and 03 actinics. If I find a photo of my ricordia that I took, I pass it on to you.

The color of both of these lights is similar in wavelength to UV, so when the photosynthetic algae within them is hit by the light, the light is reemitted so they appear to glow. I'm also not a ware of any dying of corals - I'd think as sensitive as these are, they wouldn't last very long

Answer 4

Hi!
It might help to see a pic of it under the MH but to me I don't think it is dyed. Our Hammer glows under the blue atinics but I don't have moon lights so not sure if it would be brighter. I found a link to a piece by Calfo on dyed corals you might want to check out. Also I haven't heard of Hammers being dyed but anything is possible these days. I have a couple of "glowing green pics on my webshots page if you care to check it out!

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-09/ac/feature/index.php

Great tank BTW! Would love to see more!
nice anchor too!

Answer 5

I am a tropical islander, and a SCUBA diver. I have to tell you that I never saw the calcified portion of any coral fluoresce like that, anywhere, and never heard of that being possible either.

Does not look natural to me.

But another alternative is to give them the benefit of the doubt, and get the scientific name of the coral you got. I can't tell very well, because it is dark. Then, google the species to see if, under any cnoditions, the calcified portion fluoresces like that at any moment

Answer 6

Looks fine to me - my hammer and other lps do fluoresce more than others - especially under actinic or moonlighting so I wouldnt be concerned.

It Looks good

Answer 7

i cant tell you if that normal or not because i have no idea.
i just wanted to say that, that is an AMAZING tank how much does somthing like that cost? and how hard is it to maintain?