Wild coral ID help!

[mryan04290]

Hi everyone I help out with benthic surveys at my university in southwest Florida and we are having a very difficult time identifying this coral. We know the one on the left hand side is scolymia lacera however we can’t identify the other LPS in the photo anyone have any ideas?? This photo was taken 25 miles off shore of naples Florida in the Gulf of Mexico in about 65-70 feet of water

 

[blaxsun]

I'm leaning towards goniastrea.

 

[mryan04290]

I'm leaning towards goniastrea.

It’s almost like a weird mutation between a scoly and a Favia or we found a new species! Gonistrea might be too small of polyps our leading guess was mussa angulosa but we don’t know for sure this particular coral was fairly large in diameter and the scoly next to it was about 3-4 inches across

 

[Reefing102]

Hmm my guess is any one of the following:

Manicina areolata

Isophyllia sinuosa (doubtful but maybe)

Honestly not sure though. @vetteguy53081 any thoughts?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi everyone I help out with benthic surveys at my university in southwest Florida and we are having a very difficult time identifying this coral. We know the one on the left hand side is scolymia lacera however we can’t identify the other LPS in the photo anyone have any ideas?? This photo was taken 25 miles off shore of naples Florida in the Gulf of Mexico in about 65-70 feet of water

Looks like micromussa or enchinata coral. Other possibility is bowerbanki coral but enchinata is the likely one.

 

[mryan04290]

Hmm my guess is any one of the following:

Manicina areolata

Isophyllia sinuosa (doubtful but maybe)

Isophyllia sinuosa is the current best guess we have from people on INaturalist however i don’t think the polyp size and shape quite match

 

[mryan04290]

Looks like micromussa or enchinata coral. Other possibility is bowerbanki coral but enchinata is the likely one.

Definitely thought about bowerbanki however it’s not native to Florida

 

[fangelillo01]

Hi everyone I help out with benthic surveys at my university in southwest Florida and we are having a very difficult time identifying this coral. We know the one on the left hand side is scolymia lacera however we can’t identify the other LPS in the photo anyone have any ideas?? This photo was taken 25 miles off shore of naples Florida in the Gulf of Mexico in about 65-70 feet of water

I live in Naples too!! I always wondered what was type of coral we had.

 

[encrustingacro]

I'm leaning towards goniastrea.

Looks like micromussa or enchinata coral. Other possibility is bowerbanki coral but enchinata is the likely one.

Goniastrea, Micromussa, Acanthastrea (echinata), and Homophyllia bowerbanki don’t occur in the Atlantic.

Hi everyone I help out with benthic surveys at my university in southwest Florida and we are having a very difficult time identifying this coral. We know the one on the left hand side is scolymia lacera however we can’t identify the other LPS in the photo anyone have any ideas?? This photo was taken 25 miles off shore of naples Florida in the Gulf of Mexico in about 65-70 feet of water

The coral is most likely Isophyllia rigida

 

[vetteguy53081]

Goniastrea, Micromussa, Acanthastrea (echinata), and Homophyllia bowerbanki don’t occur in the Atlantic.


The coral is most likely Isophyllia rigida

Im not sold on Rigida but its darn close. What I listed is not atlantic - correct and rules them out.
I went diving a little over a week ago in both Miami and the keys and saw quite a few different coral species but not this one. Hmmmm.

 

[PeterErc]

Mussa angulosa

 

[encrustingacro]

Im not sold on Rigida but its darn close. What I listed is not atlantic - correct and rules them out.
I went diving a little over a week ago in both Miami and the keys and saw quite a few different coral species but not this one. Hmmmm.

The reason it's not solid is because the coral is inflated.

Mussa angulosa

Mussa angulosa is phaceloid/flabello-meandroid while this coral is sub-meandroid so that wouldn't be it.

 

[PeterErc]

I was looking at that in your picture, and was on the fence whether the polyps were inflated and the edges touching. If I look close I can see lines between the polyps. The polyp to the right is splitting
I am no expert and guessing
Try this one
Isophyllastrea rigida

 

[mryan04290]

Im not sold on Rigida but its darn close. What I listed is not atlantic - correct and rules them out.
I went diving a little over a week ago in both Miami and the keys and saw quite a few different coral species but not this one. Hmmmm.

I dive for a university for research so we tend to dive places that haven’t been studied as much and this particular site is only known by about 5 people and never been surveyed before but we have seen all sorts of strange things here like Zoas at 75 feet

 

[vetteguy53081]

The reason it's not solid is because the coral is inflated.


Mussa angulosa is phaceloid/flabello-meandroid while this coral is sub-meandroid so that wouldn't be it.

I dive for a university for research so we tend to dive places that haven’t been studied as much and this particular site is only known by about 5 people and never been surveyed before but we have seen all sorts of strange things here like Zoas at 75 feet

I just mentioned diving there myself and saw unusual stuff but great to hear confirmation.