Acropora species ID

[sculpin01]

Hi,

First time poster but long term reefer. I'm trying the Jamie Craggs/Richard Ross coral breeding experiment with seasons, moon cycles, and tides (see for further details). In order to be successful, I need two of each species in order to get successful fertilization. I'm working on matching up corals that I already have and am not certain about this one. Is it A. formosa/A. muricata?

Thanks in advance!

Mike

 

[P-Dub]

Dang! Don't know for sure but it is beautiful! Where did you get it? Maybe someone has the same from where you got it. I would contact the person/shop and see what they say if it's possible/reasonable.

 

[sculpin01]

I got it years ago and I don't remember where from. It's a large colony (12" across) at this point.

 

[C. Eymann]

Post more pics, angles and zoomed in pics.

So far, stoddarti would be my best guess

 

[sculpin01]

I will tomorrow when lights are back on. I haven't noticed much by way of branch fusion into plates like Acropora stoddarti. The growth form is more of a writhing staghorn. But I'm not excluding it.

 

[C. Eymann]

I could easily be wrong, need more pics
but stoddarti doesn't always form tight plates generally only does so in super exposed environments.
Below are colonies of stoddarti from more sheltered environments.

Corals of the World

 

[lemonade]

Looks like A. Exquisita to me

 

[sculpin01]

The Acropora exquisita pics I found are pretty close to the Acropora muricata pics from the Corals Of The World site ( http://www.coralsoftheworld.org/species_factsheets/species_factsheet_summary/acropora-muricata/ ) but that's another option.

 

[lemonade]

Could be either imo. The colors look like the ones common in A. Exquisita that I’ve seen

 

[sculpin01]

Here are a couple of additional shots. It appears to be similar to the "June Ruby" coral from Battlecorals (https://battlecorals.com/products/june-ruby).

 

[C. Eymann]

After seeing those, Id start comparing it with loisettae or possibly insignis.

 

[sculpin01]

Acropora insignis definitely looks good based on color. This pic of A. microphthalma from Corals of the World looks almost identical but the colors don't match.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Hi,

First time poster but long term reefer. I'm trying the Jamie Craggs/Richard Ross coral breeding experiment with seasons, moon cycles, and tides (see for further details). In order to be successful, I need two of each species in order to get successful fertilization. I'm working on matching up corals that I already have and am not certain about this one. Is it A. formosa/A. muricata?

Thanks in advance!

Mike

Ahh I see you are already familiar!!

 

[sculpin01]

Unfortunately, this was pre-Apex malfunction/tank nuke (largely my fault) that destroyed that colony. I save two small frags, one of which is in my new grow out tank. I now feel that this is an exquisita and have a couple more examples thereof.