What is this coral?

[RocketBunny]

I went over to a friends house, and on a piece of rock in his 300 gallon, in one corner, he had a beautiful rock with two peculiar corals on it...

Now... He told me that they came in as hitch-hikers and the guy at his LFS let him keep them (well, he payed an extra 5 bucks). My friend (lets call him Tony) found out that the rock is from the Pacific side... but he doesn't know anything about the corals...

And the corals are BEAUTIFUL! I would love to keep some like those, but I don't know what they are... Down below are some pictures... of the two different corals.

From close observation, the corals are branching, but the branches are short. And I am almost certain that they are LPS(or is it SPS)-the polyp itself is very large, and protrudes far out of the skeleton, but the mouth is tiny, and surrounded by a corona of tentacles with white bulbs on the ends. And another thing, they are of different color... IDK how the picture will end up, but one has green stripes on his polyps, while the other's 'corona' of tentacles is of a blueish hue. The small colonies are also about 3-4 and a half centimeters in length

If you will need more info, or pictures... I will ask Tony and he'll send them to me

Thankyou for your help!

 

[Highgrade]

looks like Tubastraea - sun coral.

 

[RocketBunny]

looks like Tubastraea - sun coral.

Maybe. But it is not orange, and the tentacles have a white bulb at the end

Also the tentacles aren't that long as in a Tubastraea

 

[Highgrade]

Maybe. But it is not orange, and the tentacles have a white bulb at the end

Also the tentacles aren't that long as in a Tubastraea

Tubastraea doesn't just come in orange. From the greenish stripes in the center it also reminds me of duncans. Definitely interesting.

 

[raccioppi83]

candy cane coral

 

[RocketBunny]

Tubastraea doesn't just come in orange. From the greenish stripes in the center it also reminds me of duncans. Definitely interesting.

Yup. I wonder what it is...

 

[RocketBunny]

candy cane coral

No, it is absolutely not a candy cane coral... It doesn't have the fleshy 'rim' around the skeleton...

Still... Thanks for your help

 

[raccioppi83]

If you show it when it's not feeding.. It would be much easier to identify

 

[Cnidoblast]

Cup coral?

 

[RocketBunny]

If you show it when it's not feeding.. It would be much easier to identify

It is constantly like that... feeding or not, it is simply that... A polyp coral

 

[RocketBunny]

Cup coral?

Nope... I looked through google images, different thing...

 

[DSC reef]

Rhizotrochus?

 

[RocketBunny]

Rhizotrochus?

Nope. Rhizotrochus has a cone-like skeleton, these corals are cylindrical..

Thanks for your help

 

[cristata.reef]

It's one of the many species of "cup corals". Pacific species are infamous for their poor taxonomical classification so I'd deem it next to impossible to get an accurate ID on these. Corallite structure reminds me of Phyllangia sp. but I'm almost certain that's not what it is.

 

[hwntunda]

I’d say it’s a Duncan, how big are they? Around 1/4” I’m guessing? Very nice freebie none the less!

 

[cristata.reef]

I’d say it’s a Duncan, how big are they? Around 1/4” I’m guessing? Very nice freebie none the less!

There's simply no way it's a Duncan. Duncanopsammia is a monotypic genus that features a branched skeleton with spaced out radial corallites, very different from the growth pattern depicted here in which the corallites are extremely short and are clustered together in an aggregating fashion, clustered towards the substrate.

 

[jonny]

Looks a lot like galaxea to me

 

[adam finley]

I don’t know but they are definitely cool. If you figure it out let us know cause I would like one myself.

 

[cristata.reef]

Looks a lot like galaxea to me

Not a Galaxea which are characterized buy conjoined corallites with protruding septa that are often sharp and/or toothed, hence the common name of "tooth coral". In addition the tentacle arrangement is all wrong where in Galaxea the tentacles of each polyp originate from the inner septal ridge while the ones shown here are external and occur along the edge of the oral disk

 

[hwntunda]

Due to it being such a small and immature coral piece, I say to watch it and see what it truely does develop into and post growth pics. Only then we can really find out it’s gen. Unless one can say definitely what it is or not is only speculation. I’ll surely be watching for an update on this piece!