Cyphastrea?

DiabloJP · May 23, 2023

LFS said this is a cyphastrea frag, but I can't find any reference that looks like this. polyps are about 1mm and densely packed together; they're also fluorescent purple but not really showing in this pic.

PE has been consistently great though, so no complaints!

blecki · May 23, 2023

Do the polyps close into raised mounds or hide entirely inside the coral when closed? I believe if it was cyphastrea each polyp would have a stony lump of skeleton it retreated into.

DiabloJP · May 23, 2023

blecki said:
Do the polyps close into raised mounds or hide entirely inside the coral when closed? I believe if it was cyphastrea each polyp would have a stony lump of skeleton it retreated into.

No raised mound, just a tiny dimple... surface is mostly smooth and flat when they're retracted.

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · May 23, 2023

DiabloJP said:
No raised mound, just a tiny dimple... surface is mostly smooth and flat when they're retracted.

Does not sound like cyphastrea.

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · May 23, 2023

Maybe some form of alveopora?

DiabloJP · May 23, 2023

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal said:
Does not sound like cyphastrea.

MYSTERY CORAL!

It's at 100 PAR and medium flow right now, I'll let it chill there for a bit and see what it does.

Gave it a squirt of amino acids earlier and seemed to make it happy.

DiabloJP · May 23, 2023

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal said:
Maybe some form of alveopora?

The polyps do kind of have that vibe! They're just so *tiny*.

OrchidMiss · May 23, 2023

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal said:
Maybe some form of alveopora?

Correct. Alveopora have 12 petals as in this photo, I do believe.

OrchidMiss · May 23, 2023

Apologies, I'd say it is actually bernardpora as it looks to be entrusting.

DiabloJP · May 23, 2023

OrchidMiss said:
Apologies, I'd say it is actually bernardpora and it looks to be entrusting.

Awesome, thanks! And per Reef Builders it's often mis-identified as a cyphastrea. Definitely a good match for some of those photos. https://reefbuilders.com/2019/02/19...t-somewhere-in-between-goniopora-and-porites/

Exciting! Wasn't expecting it, very happy for this particular mis-label.

encrustingacro · May 24, 2023

No, it’s not Bernardpora. Bernardpora looks like this:

I would say it’s a Montipora.

ReefingDreams · May 24, 2023

Pretty certain it's a stylocoeniella.

i cant think · May 24, 2023

DiabloJP said:
LFS said this is a cyphastrea frag, but I can't find any reference that looks like this. polyps are about 1mm and densely packed together; they're also fluorescent purple but not really showing in this pic.

PE has been consistently great though, so no complaints!

It looks to be a Montipora species more than anything.
Here’s all of my monti species with PE;

Out of them all, I’d say it’s likely you have a Digitata that hasn’t began to spread yet. The other thing is, not only is the PE quite small (1mm) but the polyps are all very compact and close together which is seen in my Digi.

i cant think · May 24, 2023

ReefingDreams said:
Pretty certain it's a stylocoeniella.

These guys don’t have PE that’s so close together so I disagree also if I remember correctly Stylocoeniella has their polyps on some form of mound.

Kyan · May 24, 2023

ReefingDreams said:
Pretty certain it's a stylocoeniella.

Same here

Townes_Van_Camp · May 24, 2023

OrchidMiss said:
Correct. Alveopora have 12 petals as in this photo, I do believe.

When does the learning stop in this hobby? I say things that I learn from all of you folks and people think I am actually intelligent.

ReefingDreams · May 24, 2023

i cant think said:
These guys don’t have PE that’s so close together so I disagree also if I remember correctly Stylocoeniella has their polyps on some form of mound.

A stylo's polyps can be so close you cant even see the base color. Perfect example is the Burning Banana. Their skeleton is pretty smooth.

DiabloJP · May 24, 2023

Thanks all for the sleuthing help! I really need to expand my taxonomy knowledge base.

Big range of needs between the contenders; it's pretty middle-of-the-road right now on lighting and flow, I'll see how it does over the next couple of weeks.

Really appreciate all the help figuring this out! Second mystery coral from my main LFS.

DiabloJP · Aug 15, 2023

Soooo... dude has been on a serious color journey under the Reef LED 90s -- was a rusty red at the LFS, it's now moving in a rainbow direction with the center ranging from red to pink and the growing edges green and yellow. LFS had it at like 450 PAR, it's just over 200 now.

This top-down picture is fairly true to color except for the polyps, which look brownish here but are actually bright pink to the eye.

It's growing and encrusting at a pretty decent pace so seems to be happy, and the color is awesome.