Can anyone identify coral from its skeleton?

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

Hello, everyone!

A few years back, I went on a trip to the Everglades in Florida. Just north of the Everglades, I found 2 pieces of washed up coral.

Now that I have a tank with coral, I thought it would be cool to know what corals these once were, if it's possible. TIA!

 

[tbrown]

I'm not great at coral IDing but I had an Alveopora skeleton that looked similar.

 

[F i s h y]

My guess is that it is either a star coral or starlet coral

Species Profiles

Florida's common corals Staghorn Coral - Acropora cervicornis Staghorn coral forms antler-like branches growing in tangled dense thickets. The surface is covered with small, protruding round cups. It is brown to yellow-brown with a pale tip on the end of each branch. The tips are quite delic

www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu

Stony coral from the area is typically illegal to collect. However if you purchase live rock that has been cultured in thegulf or the keys then there is a chance that you will get some on the rock and that is legal.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

@encrustingacro

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

My guess is that it is either a star coral or starlet coral

Species Profiles

Florida's common corals Staghorn Coral - Acropora cervicornis Staghorn coral forms antler-like branches growing in tangled dense thickets. The surface is covered with small, protruding round cups. It is brown to yellow-brown with a pale tip on the end of each branch. The tips are quite delic

www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu

Stony coral from the area is typically illegal to collect. However if you purchase live rock that has been cultured in thegulf or the keys then there is a chance that you will get some on the rock and that is legal.

Even if it was washed up?

I went with a tour guide to a beach with tons of shells and stuff like this, with tons of other groups picking up stuff, and the tour guide said it was fine to keep because it was already dead and washed up.

 

[F i s h y]

Even if it was washed up?

I went with a tour guide to a beach with tons of shells and stuff like this, with tons of other groups picking up stuff, and the tour guide said it was fine to keep because it was already dead and washed up.

if it is washed up and bleached you are ok I think but I do not know the specific rules regarding that. I was referring to live stony coral sorry for any confusion.

 

[twentyleagues]

I was going to say looks like alevo or goni or something like them. God knows how many of those I saw back in the day

 

[encrustingacro]

It's not going to be anything found in the hobby, so no Alveopora, Goniopora, or anything like that. Alveopora and Goniopora are also cerioid-ish, not plocoid, and don't have a coenosteum. This coral is likely a Montastraea cavernosa; my next best guess would be Solenastrea.

 

[ygbsmww]

What about this bad boy? ID? I've had him for a good 30 yrs and am contemplating adding him to an aquascape. He's a good 12+ inches.

 

[encrustingacro]

What about this bad boy? ID? I've had him for a good 30 yrs and am contemplating adding him to an aquascape. He's a good 12+ inches.

Where was this collected? Doesn't look like anything from Florida.
It looks to be Isopora cf palifera.

 

[ygbsmww]

Where was this collected? Doesn't look like anything from Florida.
It looks to be Isopora cf palifera.

Got it in SoCal back around 1990

 

[encrustingacro]

Got it in SoCal back around 1990

Probably not originally collected in California, as there are no reefs there. Yeah, likely Isopora palifera