Grafted SPS coral species that are "infected" by fluorescent proteins are very common natural phenomena, but they are something that coral farmers painstakingly want to achieve in aquariums. This bizarre phenomenon is common, occurring in a range of coral populations, but is most common in the genus Staghorn corals, The genus Spiny Coral, but there are more reports of green fluorescent protein infection or grafting in the genus Rosacea, especially those of the tiles.
Finger rose corals were once one of the most common of all SPS corals raised by aqua, but their tendency to grow too fast can sometimes make them difficult to manage. Interestingly, so far, the occurrence of xenofluorescent proteins in branched rose corals is very rare, and it should be said that it has hardly been. Thankfully, our family at Worldwide Corals has been breeding what may be the first "viable" grafted fingered rose coral variety, starting with a small broken branch they bred about a year ago.
Before diving into the species at hand, we want to talk about the viability of corals infected with xenopsins—a little green here and a patch of red there are common, but not all cases both colors can survive at the edges of the tissues where corals grow. It takes time, patience, strategic stimulation of different growth areas and a lot of luck for the grafted rose corals to really survive, and WWC has some experience in this regard, as they are the first to breed red and green grafted rose corals under artificial conditions.
Returning to the new variety we introduced above, from the figure we can determine that the grafted finger rose coral is a green variety infected with red fluorescent protein. However, after discussions with their coral farming experts, we learned that this new breed of coral is actually the opposite. It is a red/orange branch infected with green protein.
If you have never seen or even succeeded in marrying your own coral, then you can buy several varieties from the seawater trade, and they are really interesting and fun coral varieties, just like there are two varieties in a coral. We've seen the genus Rosa spp. infected with green fluorescent protein before, but now Worldwide Corals has started working on a grafted finger-shaped rose coral that has been placed in three different display jars, and we can't wait to see what green fingers with Christmas red look like!