OP
OP
I like this question a lot. At the beginning of importing malaysian corals they had to take an extra flight and the shipment time was super long. We have found a few suppliers that have direct flights for the malaysian corals which has helped to improve our success rate also. Speciosa are a little more difficult always. When we shop for speciosas we are always looking for polyp extension and any with more fleshy tissue which isnt easy. If an importer brings in 300-400 colonies there is usually only 10 or so that we would even consider trying to aquaculture. This info is only related to speciosa. The Lokani Tenuis and other Misc. Smoothskins are no more difficult than any indo acro. but they are also so different than anything you find anywhere else. Indo is cultured each farm has somewhat repetitive sps colonies. After 15 years of shopping from every supplier around and trying to grow out every indo variety we have ever found many we have seen before. With malaysia there are so many new varieties that we can take a chance on to find some incredible new releases that you would never find from indo. We pay 5x-10x the price for almost all of our malay sps colonies but it is extremely fun to take the risk to find something new and unique.
So when shopping for malay sps.... Speciosa are tougher but the most incredible looking corals. Polyp extension tells a lot with the speciosa. Tenuis Lokani and Assorted Smoothskins have been just as high success rates as any cultured indo we bring in to aquaculture but are almost 100% unique to the hobby and the best way to keep progressing the sps hobby with new unique and incredible varieties. I have a feeling there are some absolutely unreal sps going to be grown out over the next 6-8 months the most amazing sps are going to come from malaysia with the high end stores and collectors trying their best to extract what we can from these totally unique corals.
