Post your one Favorite SPS.. Just one..
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Mr.Firemouth
FIREMOUTH WIZARD
If that cap only plates and doesn't start to form columns and ridges then it is only a green/purple cap. The Leng Sy variety will have unusual growth patterns and shapes unlike standard cap forms that plate out or sometomes scroll. Leng Sy reminds me of colored stalagmites from caves.
surfn
I bleed orange and maroon
not necessarily, you just need to have the right conditions to get it to form those nodules......and its very difficult to get it to do that from what i hear.
mine has never done it, and i only know of 1, maybe 2 people that got it to do that (from which i got my frag from 2 years ago)
Mr.Firemouth
FIREMOUTH WIZARD
They way that I understand it is Leng Sy is actually M. Tuberculosa not M. capricornus. You can see an excellent piece of actual "Leng SY" on page 345 of Eric Boreman's book Aquarium Corals and you can cotact Ecosystems directly for further verification. Because indeed the corals are very similar they have been confused and people began to sell the purple rimmed Caps as Leng Sy. This has not been contested because you need to examine the coral's skeleton for positive identification. It is commonly accepted that deformed growth forms in strange shapes is actually the "true" Leng Sy. If you have the book you can easily see the difference. I have kept both growth forms and the colors of the growing rim on M.Tuberculosa is much darker purple. There is a guy in St. Louis that is propagating the true form. I may get a new colony piece from him after I get back from the Caribbean in mid May. I will post pics then if he hooks me up.
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what i and surfn have is def. not M. capricornus, and I have every reason to believe that it is the real leng sy, as it has been kept captively in richmond for 5+ years, where it came via dc when sanjay brought it there years ago.
it does form the nodules, and has white polyps
it does form the nodules, and has white polyps
impur
GO DUCKS!!!
Mine definately has a darker purple rim, as well as a darker green body. It definately looks different then my green/purp rim cap. But who knows! I got this one from Tidalzone, and Jody hasn't steered me wrong yet.
surfn
I bleed orange and maroon
yeah, the frag i got from you and marvin, definitely are not "smooth" like your normal caps. and they do form some small nodules.
although i dont think its tuberculosa, as i have a superman from liveaquaria they called tuberculosa...which is specifically an encrusting coral that does not plate or grow off the base.
maybe i am confusing your nodules statement with the montipora aquituberculata. from what i've heard, it is VERY hard to get the leng sy cap to show this kind of growth.
http://www.reeffarmers.com/limitedmontiporaaquit.htm
thus what i'm saying, just cuz you see a frag of leng-sy that doesnt show those huge stalagtite type of peaks, doesn't necessarily mean its not a leng-sy cap.
it takes the right conditions, and alot of time to form those type of peaks, you aren't gonna have that type of growth on a small frag, or a colony that is only 2-3inches wide.
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Mr.Firemouth
FIREMOUTH WIZARD
I whol;e heartedly agree with you guys. It takes examining the skeletons to verify sp. My point is there is a green w/purple rim cap that is not a Leng Sy in circulation and just wanted people to be aware that there is a difference.
I believe water currents have some to do with growth patterns. I have also noticed they color up in nutrient poor systems. The guy who is doing these here uses a plenum. I will post a pic as soon as I get a piece.
BTW< did anyone look at the pic on PG 345? It is awesome!
I believe water currents have some to do with growth patterns. I have also noticed they color up in nutrient poor systems. The guy who is doing these here uses a plenum. I will post a pic as soon as I get a piece.
BTW< did anyone look at the pic on PG 345? It is awesome!
naturebat
Toad Licker
I agree, the only true means of ID is, unfortunately, a peice of dead, naked skeleton and "keying" features on the skeleton. But even with this, from my reading, that there are even further complications of individual variance of the specie concerned just from tank to tank. I know of some hobbyist that without a true skeletal ID, only go so far as to say it's like a M. capricornus or like a M. aequituberculata, or, my fav way of saying it...M. capricornus-sorta-like-ish.
FWIW, here's a picture of the skeleton of M. aequituberculata from the AIMS site -> AIMS
Six of one, half dozen of the other...dang(!), it is pretty.
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Randy
Zoa Farmer
I see alot of "examining the skeletons to verify sp"in this thread.I went to a Coral ID that was held by Eric B and he stated that not always can you ID captive corals this way sometimes corals change due to being in captivity.Not like change from one sp to another. The skeleton makeup changes and this makes them unable to ID.Just because one tank it looks this way doesn't meen that it will do the same in yours. The Leng Sy has been in captivity for some time now and is sure to change on it's growth patterns.
Mr.Firemouth
FIREMOUTH WIZARD
So do you think that we should set some type of standard that green with purple rim montiporas should be referred to as "Leng Sy" or is that the way it already is?
Veron goes into detail with photographs (Corals of the World-if you don't own the three volume set, I'd recommend them to anyone) how, even in the wild, the same species coral will look completely different (flow, light, nutrients, etc.). I don't know how this translates on a skeletal make up level, but the fact that even in the wild they can look that drasticly different makes a definite determination on sight very difficult. I tend to say it is a certain species (X), but mean that it is like this species (X) (everyone is supposed to be able to read my mind for that description
). I try to use species desriptions more as descriptors, like PE's (zoas, not polyp extension), etc., to give an idea of what it is close to. Even here, a lot of people have obviously no idea what differentiates certain genuses, much less species and may have never even looked it up and are taking the word of someone that sold them something that it is Genus/speciesX (maybe it's just ignorance you have to 'enjoy' as a seller for some of the marketing ploys on sites like EBay). Ah the fun and debate in ID'ing.
). I try to use species desriptions more as descriptors, like PE's (zoas, not polyp extension), etc., to give an idea of what it is close to. Even here, a lot of people have obviously no idea what differentiates certain genuses, much less species and may have never even looked it up and are taking the word of someone that sold them something that it is Genus/speciesX (maybe it's just ignorance you have to 'enjoy' as a seller for some of the marketing ploys on sites like EBay). Ah the fun and debate in ID'ing.
Veron goes into detail with photographs (Corals of the World-if you don't own the three volume set, I'd recommend them to anyone) how, even in the wild, the same species coral will look completely different (flow, light, nutrients, etc.). I don't know how this translates on a skeletal make up level, but the fact that even in the wild they can look that drasticly different makes a definite determination on sight very difficult. I tend to say it is a certain species (X), but mean that it is like this species (X) (everyone is supposed to be able to read my mind for that description
agreed, how many pics have you seen from people calling them A. echinata which clearly were not?
veron is a must buy for any sps person, but they also have lps in there, and i have spent hours browsing through each volume
any coral id beyond genus is best guess, and we need to realize that the term species does not apply to corals the same way it does with most life forms. it is a term created by humans to classify things that are constantly evolving; mass spawnings tend to jumble the genetic soup
naturebat
Toad Licker
I totally agree that going beyond genus is best guess.
But, isn't the definition of specie the ability to interbreed within a defined genus? Sub-species and hybrids may occur when physiologic similiarities and geograghic constraints are met. I have heard of some Monti's possibly hybridizing in someone tank.
rottface4
Community Member
I'm not an SPS expert, but I remember a while back reading a debate on RC about the Leng Sy cap id. I forget the exact details but I remember another key feature of the leng sy is that the polyps are more of a lime green/ whitish in color and they are not the same as the main body color of the coral.
Heres mine Ly seng:
