Unknown Coral

Azurel · Dec 16, 2006

I got this off a piece of live rock about 3 years ago, when I found it it was about a 1/4 inch square so I broke it off and glued it.Now it's about 3-4 inchs around and really plating, it is also a dark maroon color and when the tissue is out it looks kinda hairy I guess....Eric Borneman tried to help me ID it and the closest thing he could come up with is Laminosa sp....What do you guys think?

Azurel · Dec 16, 2006

The second picture is an old one but you can see how the tissue looks and how hairy it looks.....

twon8 · Dec 16, 2006

looks sort of like a pavona

Azurel · Dec 16, 2006

He thought of that too.....But couldn't pin point it....I thought I would check with you SPS gurus.....

surfn · Dec 16, 2006

interesting, never seen anything like it. when all else fails...consult the *experts* on the sps forum over on RC

epidemic · Dec 16, 2006

lepastrea

Azurel · Dec 17, 2006

I looked that up too, and I can only find pictures of corals that have large coralites, where this does not have any real signs of coralites although you can see small round spots with what lookes to be a mouth type area but the are much smaller then anything I have found under lepastrea.....I'll post on RC too I think.....Thanks all for the help keep the sugestions coming if you have a clue for sure.....

TyreeUM · Dec 17, 2006

i dont know I agree with epidemic, looks to be some sort of lepastrea-so go ahead and bleach half of it so we can see the coralites and give you a 100% ID haha-just kidding, either way its prety nice.

kevin · Dec 17, 2006

psammacora?

gflat65 · Dec 17, 2006

I was thinking some type of Psammacora, too... Not seen anything exactly like that, though.

twon8 · Dec 17, 2006

i originally thought psammacora,as the extended polyps look like psamamcora, i have a branching one, and it doesn't have the seperate corallites, but looking at veron, it appears it may be

maybe this one:
http://whelk.aims.gov.au/coralsearch/html/801-900/Species pages/852.htm

TyreeUM · Dec 17, 2006

who knows-is there any exposed skeleton? I just wanna see those coralites-they look tiny

jessiesgrrl · Dec 17, 2006

I am going to have to go with the leps on this one... Man, that's tiny!

Laurie

Azurel · Dec 17, 2006

Nope no exposed skeleton I can get a picture of the underside if that will help?

What's tiny Laurie?

TyreeUM · Dec 17, 2006

it is just tough on corals like that to ID-i mean they arent corals you see everyday so its not like you can jsut say "oh yeah thats ____", but if there was exposed skeleton then you could count septa and see coralite structure and figure out at LEAST genus of the coral, thats why i asked.

Azurel · Dec 18, 2006

Ya I know.....I knew why you asked, just dont have any bare spots which is good it's growth has been tremendous over the last year or so.....I had to rearrange my tank so know I have it up front so it can be seen...

Azurel · Jan 27, 2007

Well I was feeding the tank and noticed that some mysis laneded on it and it ate the mysis....The tissue got all puffy around the mysis and it started to swallow the food....I will get pics next time....