Wild Red Sea Acropora ID Help

Peter Clark

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Calling all Acro experts!

I'm going through photos I took SCUBA diving in the Red Sea a few months ago and am trying to ID various species of fish and corals. I'm currently stuck on one Acropora. Below are the various photos I have of it. There is a Freckled Hawkfish sitting on it. The color corrected photos I took with my SLR, but the others were with a GoPro (I only learned just after the trip that the newer GoPros support RAW). The 3 GoPro photos are as I approach the coral.

These were taken at the Blue Hole in Dahab, Egypt. Apparently there are 54 species of Acropora in the Red Sea. Joy. My ID book only covers 6 of them even and I'm not great at understanding the little differences. It looks like in the background in the upper right is one similar to Acropora humilis, but I have no clue for this main one. I may just label it Acropora and call it a day.

Thank you!

IMG_7999.jpg
IMG_8000.jpg
GOPR0225.jpg
GOPR0226.jpg
GOPR0227.jpg
 
Possibly A. Squarrosa
That is one of the ones I was wondering about. My ID book comments it is similar to A. maryae but with thicker branches and more prominent corallites. I don't have the eye for that though.

Thank you!
 

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