Macro or acans?

[gm333]

With me being new to the acan and macromussa scene, I cannot see the difference in them. I was told these 2 pieces were macromussa. How do you tell the difference and are these 2 pieces macros or acans.

front side of first frag

other side of same frag

And what I was told was macromussa

 

[FateX8]

im gunna say the first is an acan and the second is a micro
never seen a micro look like the first one but i have seen tons of acans look like the first
but also, cant really be 100% that its a micro or acan, mainly because people use size as the biggest justifier as one from the other

 

[msman825]

the first looks like the rainbow acan, second red micro too me

 

[Smarsh]

the first one looks to be an acan echinata. The second looks to be a micromussa.

Sandy

 

[gflat65]

I agree. The first looks like an Acan echinata (sub echinata, etc.), but the second one looks like a lord or micro. I have asked numerous times and have gotten mno response, so i assume no one knows how lords and micros are different... They used to be classified as the same (Acan lord). As far as I know the only difference is in the size of the polyp, which to me is absolutely no help to me, given that many of my polyps are small and I'm loathe to call them micros...

 

[Hypertek99]

The first one is diffently a Rainbow Acan echinata. And the second looks like a micromussa.

 

[patedship]

Size is not at all a good indicator of micros and lords. I have some micros that are MASSIVE. And some lords that are small. Basically it comes down to light tolerance, most acan lords cannot tolerate super high light. But micros seem to thrive in it!

 

[Smarsh]

I think it techincaly comes down to the skeleton but since we don't see the skeleton really well until the coral is dead then that doesn't help us any.

I have noticed that it appears my micros have a membrane between each head where as the acans seem to not have such a pronounced membrane but more of a stoney structure. I don't even know if I've explained that very well, maybe I can get a picture of it.

Sandy

 

[cobraz]

1.acan echinata
2.micromussa.