Homewrecker Acropora

Homewrecker is Jason Fox's signature acro — a dense, slow-building colony in hot pink and red, tipped in blue and purple, with polyps that glow against the body under actinic light. Released through Jason Fox Signature Corals, it earned its name from its price tag: for years it sat beside Walt Disney at the very top of the acro market. The growth form is a tight, bottlebrush cluster typical of the tenuis group, and a grown colony reads as a single mass of pink crowned with blue.

Care follows the high-end tenuis playbook. Homewrecker wants strong, blue-weighted light and heavy, chaotic flow, mounted high in the aquascape where both reach it. It is a chemistry coral: alkalinity steadiness in the 8–10 dKH band, calcium 400–450 ppm, and present-but-modest nutrients keep the pink saturated. In dim or dirty conditions the body dulls toward maroon; in starved water the growth tips stop first, then the whole colony pales. Give it a permanent mount — this strain resents repeated moves more than most.

Growth is patient work. Frags typically spend months laying down a thick encrusting base before pushing branches, and early growth often looks stalled while the base spreads under the plug. Once established, the colony thickens fast and branches crowd together, so start it with room on all sides. Fragging is standard acro practice — clip branch tips, mount, and wait out another encrusting phase. Keep it clear of faster acros; Homewrecker grows too slowly to win a crowding contest.

Field notes — what keepers report: Placement advice splits. Some keepers get their best pink with the colony a few inches below Walt Disney, in slightly gentler light; others run it at the very top and report the same color. Both camps agree the coral punishes impatience — keepers who move it chasing color usually set it back months. Encrusting before branching is the most repeated observation in grow-out threads.

Photo: Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons. The photo shows a wild Acropora tenuis colony at Anilao, Philippines; Homewrecker is an aquacultured Acropora selection of the tenuis type, chosen for the pink-and-blue color described above.