Favia or Favites?

[reeferfoxx]

I've had this coral for more than a year. I was looking for a definitive ID on what exactly this is? I've been calling it a favia but i'm not sure now? I've googled and googled and keep getting contradictory answers. Is it a favia, favites, brian coral, war coral? ugh..

 

[Tanked_Life]

The best way to tell is by looking at the original part of the coral not the out growth but in my opinion it is a Favia as they are Cingular corallites. The new growth looks like shared walls indicating favites or even platygra hence why you look at the original spot

 

[reeferfoxx]

I think it's favia too but when I go to like say, live aquaria, they show one that looks the same but is called Favites?

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=597+321+427&pcatid=427

 

[Tanked_Life]

Please do not bring up the live aquaria thing haha I have told them many times that they name thier brain corals wrong it is unfortunate. In this case though they are correct you can see that each "mouth" has is sharing a wall with the one next to it that indicates favites. Your Favia has a bridge that separates the walls of you look closely. The wall almost comes to a point that is the point of separation.

 

[Tanked_Life]

As you can see the point in the close up here

 

[reeferfoxx]

Awesome! Okay so it's favia for sure? i know it looks to be separate but really it looks like one wall or one bridge. Meaning, it's not separate like an Acan polyp but it does have the indent. So if it didn't have an indent it would be favites?

 

[Tanked_Life]

Correct it would be more of a half cylinder if it was favites or the wall would extend to envelop two mouth almost but yes that bridge is what you look for as that means it was two separate walls that over time merged giving it the appearance of one but glad to help man nice piece you got there

 

[reeferfoxx]

Thank you!

 

[themcnertney]

Who knows...

 

[Tristren]

The best way to tell is by looking at the original part of the coral not the out growth but in my opinion it is a Favia as they are Cingular corallites. The new growth looks like shared walls indicating favites or even platygra hence why you look at the original spot

I know this is 5yrs old now, but I was wondering why the old growth/new growth thing would be different. I mean in such a way as to confuse the identification.

And I suppose that makes me wonder if in some cases the difference in growth patterns that we identify as species specific is actually just environment specific?

Cheers, Tony