Easy corals - Mini colonies of leather corals.

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What size is a Mini colony?

So a Mini colony is bigger than a frag, and not quite big enough to be a small colony. Which then raises the question of at what point it stops being a frag, and becomes a coral. This is actually much more straightforward than you’d think.

So what is a frag?

So a frag is a cutting from a larger coral, technically a frag could be a piece several feet across, but, in common usage it is not. A frag is small piece of coral that looks like a piece of coral rather than having the shape of the adult. Let’s look at frogs as a comparison.

These are Mini colonies. A closer look at the three in the pack.

Frogs not frags.

A baby frog is a tadpole, it has frog DNA and is essentially a baby frog. However it’s not the same shape as an adult frog. Eventually the tadpole grows legs climbs out of water and becomes a miniature adult. At that point it is clearly a frog and not a tadpole. It’s now a frog, it may be a mini sized version of an adult frog, but, it is frog shape. It’s essentially a similar thing with corals.

Tadpoles look very different to frogs. Here you can see the life cycle of a frog.

Aha makes sense!

So when the cutting of coral still looks like a cut piece, it is essentially still a frag. So for example a frag of a branching coral may only have 1 stem, or 1 stem with some side branches. Until it has branchs on it’s branchs it still looks like a tadpole not a frog. Once the coral changes shape so it is the same shape as the adult coral but smaller, at that point it becomes a colony, just a mini one. Let’s look at the photos below:

That’s quite a saving!

As you can see in the photos taken of the actual ones in stock you can see that they do indeed look like a big coral colony, but, they are actually only around 2” each. Around the same width across as say the bottom of a can of coke, and about half the height of can of coke too. That’s actually quite a nice little size. Because this saves on growing time, and costs less in air freight being smaller and lighter to ship, they cost half the price of a larger colony. Being super easy leather corals, the easiest corals of all, even a new hobbyist will get these to double in size in 6 months, saving half the money of buying a larger one. But, it’s not just about price either.

Lots and lots of GOLD! 80’s pop band Spandau ballet, eternally famous for their track GOLD.

So that’s the key to a great looking reef tank then!

When corals grow the shape they grow into depends on their flow, light, position of neighbours etc. When you buy a full size coral and put it in your tank it will have already started to grow to suit one type of flow and light, and now has to adapt to grow a different shape to match your tank. This results in a coral that can look very very slightly oddly shaped to the trained eye. When a coral grows from a baby to adult in your tank in that position it will grow to fit the light and flow of your tank. If most of your corals had grown that way, you get a very naturalistic shape. The effect on each coral is subtle, but, when you look at a whole tank grown in this way it will just look more pleasing and authentic than one arranged using adults. Think of it like flowers.

Flowers?

So imagine ancient jungle with fallen trees, mosses, mushrooms etc, it will be very obvious even without knowing much about jungles that it is old and original. If you tried to recreate that authenticity with pot plants it would be very difficult and look less convincing. Think of all the efforts the display gardens at the RHS Chelsea flower show go to. They grow Ivy up sheds, moss onto the paths and all sorts of other tricks at great expense to make it look like a garden that has grown naturally that way. Of course the easier way to do it, is to just plant it and let it grow to the shape things want to be.

Creating a garden like this and making it look like everything has grown naturally is very difficult and expensive. It’s far easier to add plants and let it grow to shape naturally. Doing this with frags can take 6-12 months for them to get established before they start tailoring themselves to fit your reef. Starting with Mini colonies means they start growing to the custom shape for your tank this week!

So much better looking then.

Yes, by letting the corals grow to the shape of your tank, your light, and your flow it will very quickly look more realistic than plonking in adults. Ok, so why are Mini colonies better than frags then?

A tank filled by natural growth like this, creates a look that is far nicer than starting with adult colonies, and using Mini colonies makes it much faster than starting with frags. The best of both worlds.

Mini colonies are the sweetest spot.

So we now know that large colonies won’t be the authentic shape, so why not start everything as frags then? Well yes you can, and many people do, however if everything is frags it will take time to grow. Being small, and often freshly cut, it may take several months to sort itself out, then months to grow to Mini colony size. Also until it gets to mini colony size the adult shape hasn’t started forming so your 12 month old frag won’t look any more tailor grown at that point than a Mini colony. This is what makes Mini colonies the sweetest spot of them all. Much cheaper than buying already shaped adult colonies, and as big as you can get it before it has started to form it’s custom shape. So rather than get a frag and waiting 6-12 months before they get to Mini colony size and start growing to fit your tank, these Mini colonies are ready to start their custom growth straight from day one!

Faster, cheaper, easier, better.

So Mini colonies make establishing a reef much faster than using frags. Being smaller than adults they cost half what a typical adult colony would cost too. Mini colonies are much more durable than frags. they are larger, have more polyps to grow from and better reserves of trace elements etc. Mini colonies can establish themselves and already in full growing mode, so are much more ready to grow than a frag that may be still establishing a hold on the rock or repairing damage from fragging etc. As well as it being faster, cheaper, and easier, it also looks much better much faster. You can start growing a custom grown reef straight away this week, rather than waiting 6-12 months for a frag to get this size. Superb! the best size of all then!

Let’s do this.

Ok so we have 3 different grades of these corals (see link below for info on our unique coral grading system). You can buy each one individually, or save even more by buying a triple pack (1 of each of the three types) for just £99, or, if you buy 2 packs they are only £89 a pack. Please note though we only have 5 complete packs at these crazy low prices, so don’t hang about and get your pack ordered today!