Coral Identity

[SaltEpidemic]

Hello! First time poster and new to the whole aquarium hobby so I hope a few silly questions aren't too much of a bother!

So my first tank has been up about 7 weeks now, cycled with no problems, and even added a couple clowns around the 4 week mark.

At the 5 week mark the ugly stage started, I let this go for about a week before adding a clean up crew at the 6 week point, which they've handled with no problems. I also added 3 beginner corals just to test the waters for the first time.

Basically I'm curious if anyone could identify one that I had added, and perhaps offer any guidance towards its health from an initial first look. I was told the coral was a blue tip hammer but I'm not seeing the hammer, and I see mouths now? It also looks more similar to a torch I've seen however the arms look shorter? Any info is appreciated, thanks in advance!!

 

[Eric Cohen]

Hello! First time poster and new to the whole aquarium hobby so I hope a few silly questions aren't too much of a bother!

So my first tank has been up about 7 weeks now, cycled with no problems, and even added a couple clowns around the 4 week mark.

At the 5 week mark the ugly stage started, I let this go for about a week before adding a clean up crew at the 6 week point, which they've handled with no problems. I also added 3 beginner corals just to test the waters for the first time.

Basically I'm curious if anyone could identify one that I had added, and perhaps offer any guidance towards its health from an initial first look. I was told the coral was a blue tip hammer but I'm not seeing the hammer, and I see mouths now? It also looks more similar to a torch I've seen however the arms look shorter? Any info is appreciated, thanks in advance!!

Torch coral....single dot on the tip. A frogspawn coral has more dots along the tentacle.

 

[SaltEpidemic]

Torch coral....single dot on the tip. A frogspawn coral has more dots along the tentacle.

Thank you! Are the arms supposed to have extended further by now? I've had the coral almost a week now, it's sitting at the bottom of the tank because I didn't want to risk to much light, and the tank is running I'd say at a low to moderate flow

 

[nereefpat]

Welcome to R2R!

I was told the coral was a blue tip hammer but I'm not seeing the hammer,

Branching hammers (E. parancora) have less 'hammer-shaped' hammers, so it could be that. Along with torches, there are also grapes which have shorter tentacles. The term "torch" has also become a bit of a catch-all among hobbyists for any torch relatives.

My guess would be a branching hammer, but I could be wrong. Let it settle in a bit.

 

[SaltEpidemic]

Welcome to R2R!

Branching hammers (E. parancora) have less 'hammer-shaped' hammers, so it could be that. Along with torches, there are also grapes which have shorter tentacles. The term "torch" has also become a bit of a catch-all among hobbyists for any torch relatives.

My guess would be a branching hammer, but I could be wrong. Let it settle in a bit.

Thank you for the input, so much to learn

Lol tyvm

 

[KK's Reef]

Looks like cristata torch, maybe.

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

Welcome to R2R second euphyllia. Torch possibly cristata. Shorty.

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

Torch coral....single dot on the tip. A frogspawn coral has more dots along the tentacle.

Happy New Year Eric.

 

[dedragon]

branching hammer would be my guess as well, you could probably drop the flow a bit and it should open up more

 

[nereefpat]

Looks like cristata torch, maybe.

Welcome to R2R second euphyllia. Torch possibly cristata. Shorty.

Wouldn't that make it a grape (E. cristata) and not a torch?

 

[SaltEpidemic]

branching hammer would be my guess as well, you could probably drop the flow a bit and it should open up more

I'm using a mp10, have the powerhead at the frontal portion of my tank, around the third of the top area. Also have it set to only like 480gph on the tidal setting, which I thought was fairly low as I had to crank the power down to like 10%

I had it set around 900gph for awhile, and while it didn't effect the sand bed initially, over time it would shift it around it around if that makes sense? Any much more gph and I'm getting the funnel effect of air from the surface of the water. So water flow has been an experiment, I hear 20x to 40x, even at 20 the tank gets a little stirred up. Maybe just something I need to adjust for and get more comfortable with, not sure. Thank you for the input though!

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

Wouldn't that make it a grape (E. cristata) and not a torch?

Yes. Sry. I stand corrected. Ty

 

[nereefpat]

Yes. Sry. I stand corrected. Ty

Hey, no worries. My post was a legitimate question. I keep seeing the word "torch" on corals that aren't torches. I think torches are/were a hot item recently.

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

Hey, no worries. My post was a legitimate question. I keep seeing the word "torch" on corals that aren't torches. I think torches are/were a hot item recently.

I think they still are. Lol. Euphyllia glabrescens not E cristata aka grape.

 

[Cell]

Not seeing any septa indicative of cristata in that photo.

 

[encrustingacro]

Doesn't look like E. cristata. The "green tentacles/blue acrospheres" color scheme is not usually seen in Euphyllia, and seen more in Fimbriaphyllia. I also do not see any large septa sticking out. My guess would be Fimbriaphyllia sp.

 

[nereefpat]

Doesn't look like E. cristata. The "green tentacles/blue acrospheres" color scheme is not usually seen in Euphyllia, and seen more in Fimbriaphyllia. I also do not see any large septa sticking out. My guess would be Fimbriaphyllia sp.

You would say branching hammer then?

 

[SaltEpidemic]

Doesn't look like E. cristata. The "green tentacles/blue acrospheres" color scheme is not usually seen in Euphyllia, and seen more in Fimbriaphyllia. I also do not see any large septa sticking out. My guess would be Fimbriaphyllia sp.

So I googled Fimbriaphyllia and was looking through some of the pictures offered. Splatter hammer? Anyway, I noticed some of the heads split in the pictures, not sure if that's a characteristic of the forenamed, but I do know one of the heads appears to be split on my frag posted, like just near the tip, so there's two heads. The picture I gave didn't show this, and this only occurs on one of the heads, so just thought it to be morphed or damaged in some fashion. ‍

 

[encrustingacro]

You would say branching hammer then?

Maybe.

So I googled Fimbriaphyllia and was looking through some of the pictures offered. Splatter hammer? Anyway, I noticed some of the heads split in the pictures, not sure if that's a characteristic of the forenamed, but I do know one of the heads appears to be split on my frag posted, like just near the tip, so there's two heads. The picture I gave didn't show this, and this only occurs on one of the heads, so just thought it to be morphed or damaged in some fashion. ‍

Fimbriaphyllia are hammers, frogspawns, octospawns, and frammers.

 

[nereefpat]

Anyway, I noticed some of the heads split in the pictures, not sure if that's a characteristic of the forenamed, but I do know one of the heads appears to be split on my frag posted, like just near the tip, so there's two heads. The picture I gave didn't show this, and this only occurs on one of the heads, so just thought it to be morphed or damaged in some fashion. ‍

That's how the branching species grow. The heads split.

Maybe.


Fimbriaphyllia are hammers, frogspawns, octospawns, and frammers.

It's not a wall hammer or any kind of 'spawn' with multiple tips, so the options are pretty limited.