Id please :)

[Luigi]

Please tell me the name of this guy:

http://www.expelmedico.com/archivos/Pics/lps.JPG

[Justin74]

Hey that's cool! Looks like a cross between a gorgonian, and a sarcophyton!

What you have I believe to be is a Goniopora. Just pretty uncommon to find them branching like that, but that's what they did! Must have been collected from a protected lagoonal area, which would explain it's branching.

The second pic from the left looks very similar, with other possible similar specie links below:
http://www2.aims.gov.au/coralsearch/html/201-300/Species%20pages/202.htm

-Justin

[Luigi]

Well when I first got it it was pretty small, all the branches you see have grown inside my tank in a 2yr period.

[Luigi]

Do you have any other ideas?

[JokerGirl]

I don't believe it to be a Goniopora or even Goniopora pandoraensis. I blew the photo up a bit and from what I can see there aren't enough tentacles surrounding the mouths for it to be Goniopora. The structure isn't right either as most of the branching Goni that I've seen have more lobed structures than they do stick structure.

It may be an Alveopora though, which I havn't thoroughly studied at all. Look around and see what you can find.

Very interesting specimen none the less!

[Luigi]

Very interesting your observation, indeed it has only 12 tentacles wich would rule out Goniopora (they have 24).

Never the less I can't seem to relate this one to an Alveopora, all the ones I've seen (I did an extensive search) dont look like mine :(

[JokerGirl]

Yeah I have no clue what it would be. If your camera can handle it, I would try taking a photo of the old skeleton there at the bottom left of the coral and posting again in the SPS forum maybe.

Whatever it is, it's pretty neat what you have there!

[Justin74]

Ya I spun my wheels on the tenticle thing. But no alveopora even looks as close as the pandorensis does. Although your right about it being more lobed, but as you may know growth is relative to light and moreso to flow. Something that may be columnar or lobed in the wild may be digitat in a closed system. Perfect example of this is pocillopora. There like clumps in the wild but Ive seen some in closed systems that look just like monti digi's due to the lack of high flow.
A few more shots would definately help, ideally a good macro. Kinda hard to get a good perception of size, and to be able to look closer at the polyps would help too. My second guess would've been like a sea pen, or heliopora but the polyps petal looks to big for that.

Good advice to try in the SPS forum though, more traffic through that forum with some old salts who may recognize it pretty quickly. Good Luck!


-Justin

[JokerGirl]

I agree with what you're saying Justin, but I own a G. pandoraensis and G. eclipsensis which are both branching, and the coral that Luigi has looks absolutely nothing like it.

Either way, it's pretty cool. A couple of good macro shots would make it a lot easier to identify!

[Justin74]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10660010#post10660010 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JokerGirl
but I own a G. pandoraensis and G. eclipsensis which are both branching, and the coral that Luigi has looks absolutely nothing like it.


Well there you have it! :D Im just browsin pics, "armchair id'n" Can't debate first hand experience, which I don't have! :D
That porous skeleton really throws me off, otherwise I wouldnt be guessing it to be a stoney coral at all! :)

-Justin

[JokerGirl]

Yeah that coral is certainly an oddity. The bare skeleton at the bottom would be interesting to yhave a closer photograph of.

Not to mention that at first glance it appears to be bleached or on it's way to being bleached, but Luigisaid he's had it growing like this for a while so that rules that out.

[Luigi]

You have great powers of observation JokerGirl. This coral has me confused because as it grows new branches it dies behind. When I first got it it was all alive. Now its much bigger (like 3 times as much) but the old branches are already dead.

BTW thank you for your interesting comments, please go on...

(I linked a bigger picture so you can see more details)

[Luigi]

If you can't see the bigger pic above, try clicking here (http://www.expelmedico.com/archivos/Pics/lps.jpg)

[Luigi]

Some how the link seems to be broken, please click here (http://www.expelmedico.com/archivos/Pics/lps.jpg) to see the larger pic

[JokerGirl]

I'm wondering if it's not some type of branching Porite. I very well could be wrong though.

[Justin74]

Right now I would put porite in the top 5 guesses, it very well could be. Spent about 40 minutes skimmin through the sight and just keep coming back to the same ones. The growth from being in his tank as opposed to the wild may be making it harder as all the pics are in their natural habitat, so you dont get to see much for different growth morphology.

Definately a good stumper Luigi! Would be nice to get more pics though and not just an enlargement of the same one though ;) I could not find one polyp where I could feel confident about the count of tenticles even enlarged. Im counting 12-15 tenticles though. If it werent for the number though, looks just like some kind of goni, I know 24.. ;) Has that been researched? Or is that a general consensus? Ive never seen mention of that in the small taxonomy exerpts Ive read. Not that Ive done extensive research on them though..

-Justin

[Luigi]

Well, thanks anyway for your replys. My camera broke so I guess no more pics for now :(

[jdieck]

I will venture it is some species of Alveopora.