Please ID

[dpearly88]

This frag was sold to me as a Montipora Cap. That's not the right idm though I don't know what it is. Any thoughts.

http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u8/dpearly88/DSC00651.jpg

[RCS]

Looks like maybe some type of Porites.

[BLKTANG]

Hit it with a turkey baster to expose the structure of the coral.U will have a better chance of an ID.

[JackKerouac]

It look like an Alveopora to me,with not extended polyps.It's an LPS

[REEFRHEAD]

looks like a monti confusia to me huge polyps great extention feed some cyclopeze asap

[SDguy]

Aren't there too many tentacles per polyp for a monti?

[dpearly88]

I really don't think it's an LPS, but maybe. Is is very well feed. I'll some more pics with polyps retracted later.

[Kolognekoral]

Looks like a Goniopora, too many tentacles for Alveopora. A shot of the skeleton would certainly help! How big across are the polyps? Are any areas of the skeleton bare? A shot of the inner skeleton will help determine the species.

It's awfully attactive!

[coralnut99]

Alveopora.

[JokerGirl]

It doesn't look like either Goniopora/Alveopora to me. It may be possible that it is Goniopora, and if it is, it's polyp extension is pretty cruddy and it's in it's last few stages of being starved to death.

My guess would be a type of porites, but a closer photo of the polyps and skeletal structure is in need.

[Kolognekoral]

There are many species of Goniopora (and Alveopora) that extend their polyps only a few centimetres, if that. G. tenuidens, for one, although this resembles G. pandoraensis. Most have only seen G. stokesi or G. columna, which have long tentacles and polyps.

As far as telling Alveopora from Goniopora, Alveopora has 12 tentacles and Goniopora has 24. I can barely count from the photo, but I seem to see more than 12. Pearly, can you confirm this one way or the other?

[SDguy]

I count 12.

[JokerGirl]

You are right that some species do not extend much more than a cm or two, but the tentacles around the mouth of the polyps are very nubby which is usually a bad sign.

[dpearly88]

Well, from what I've found Porites looks like the right ID. But here another pic with many of the polyps retracted.

http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u8/dpearly88/DSC00655.jpg

[SDguy]

Aren't there pavona's that look something like that?

[dpearly88]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9577042#post9577042 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SDguy
Aren't there pavona's that look something like that?

That's what I'm thinking.

[Kalied20]

sure like to know myself what this one is????

I got a little piece of the same thing growing in my zoanthids. Just showed up there. I didn't put it there....

[dpearly88]

Still looking for a conclusive ID!

[Frick-n-Frags]

not porites, too bumpy
not pavona, not ridged corallites


shut down, that looks like some weird Montipora. (unless everything looks like a Montipora to me today :D)

edit: WHOAH!, the edge looks like Turbinaria. look at those rows of polyps toward the upper left, and the growing edge., yeah and if there are slightly raised corallites now disqualifies Montipora.


New guess: Turbinaria

edit#2: boy it still looks like a Monti too

bottom line: P U N T ! :D

[SDguy]

Can monti's have that many tentacles per polyp?

[BLKTANG]

How about a pic of the back of the coral.

[dpearly88]

Porites, and that's from a very good source.

Thanks for the help.

[Frick-n-Frags]

what help? :D

[SDguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9583110#post9583110 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Frick-n-Frags
what help? :D

:lol:

[chrisstie]

Looks like a little hitchiker I got. there's a few different species of goniopora ... do the polyps come out on little stumpy stalks? if there's 24 then it could be a particular brand of that...

otherwise im not sure what to say

[ReeferMadnessUS]

There is no way tell as the frag is still very small, post another pic when the frag grows out a bit..

HTH

RM team