this is a Cespitularia, right?

[Patwa]

I always thought it was a cespitularia, but after about an hour of finagling with my camera and lighting, I could not seem to get a pic of the sclerites (the little shards of calcium that are found within the tissue of this coral - those same shards are what gives Cespitularia the iridescent appearance under certain lighting conditions).

at this point, the only thing i'm 100% sure of is that it is a Xeniid of some sort...and since it's polyps do not retract into the body, I was told it must be a Cespitularia...

plus, it does not match any pic of a blue xenia that I can find on the web....all the blue xenia i can find are actually a very light blue or have a mix of blue and green....this one is more purple, and the polyps are beige

can anyone shed any light on this for me?

anyone seen this exact coral before?


oh yeah...i'm calling this baby "Electric Indigo," ...after one of my favourite DJs



here's an older pic


Zach

[apex003]

Hmmm. Honestly not sure. It's got a similar color and the growth form looks right, but I don't see sclerites either. Did you try taking a pic straight on with the flash and no tank lights. If it's cespit, you should definitely see the sclerites under those conditions. You should also definitely be able to get the sclerite glitter looking at the coral with a flashlight.

Shoot me a PM. I'll trade ya for a bona fide cespit frag and then we can take side-by-side pics. No matter what, that's a sweet coral!

[apex003]

Boo! You're in Toronto...

[Casshern]

I believe it's time for me to take a trip to canadia. dibs on first frag

[Patwa]

LOL...yeah....it's a cespitularia, i'm fairly positive.... but b/c of the apparent lack of sclerites, i dunno......

as for trading...technically speaking, CITES does not cover soft corals...so it's OK to trade b/w hobbyists...of course, we're talking about an unmounted frag (no live-rock whatso-ever!)..and you'd prolly need to get clarification from CITES and government peeps (read: get an email from them saying it's OK to carry across the border and show it to Customs officers)....if any of you don't mind doing the leg work, you can have a frag

Zach.

[Patwa]

here's the best i can do for a night time flash-only shot....still no visible sclerites.



Zach.

[250G]

Now that was uncalled for - no frag for you!

Originally posted by apex003
Boo! You're in Toronto...

[apex003]

I didn't mean Boo aboot Toronto. I meant Boo aboot he can't ship me a frag from Toronto. Or can he? Patwa?

Originally posted by 250G
Now that was uncalled for - no frag for you!

[apex003]

Originally posted by Patwa
here's the best i can do for a night time flash-only shot....still no visible sclerites.



Zach.

Hmmm. Probably not cespitularia then... Still a sweet coral!

[Jamokie01]

Its cespitularia, coloration all depends on lighting, color temp, and placement in the tank. The more blue the light in your tank is, the more purple/blue the flesh looks. My lighting is T-5, between 10 and 12K, and mine looks pink with an zqua irridescence to it.

Also, this stuff is an aweful shipper, I didnt buy mine until I found it locally.

[Tyler.L]

i'm in ottawa and ready to drive there to get a frag lol nice find

[Patwa]

LOL...nice one, Tyler...what do you have to trade?

Jamokie01....it's a bit more complicated than that.....the presence of spicules/sclerites is one of the defining traits of cesp....this one i have, although it looks very similar to cesp, does not have any visible spicules/sclerites....and it does not iridesce in the same way apex003's specimen does (apex003, you have PM!!)

here's a couple more pics I snapped this past weekend

no tank lights...only 100% sunlight


no tank lights...100% sunlight WITH camera flash and some PS cleaning


Zach

[gflat65]

Sweet coral, Zach... The color is incredible. I don't see any sclerites either, but wow.

I'm telling you. The Ca government is pushing to increase population with whacked out reef heads.

[mikekman]

Awesome looking coral. Patwa, were you able to identify it?

Also does anyone here have an idea what it might be?

I was thinking cesp but can't see the glitters so I'm unsure too.
Perhaps someone has a similar one and can post pics?

Mike

[humanremainz]

that is Cespitularia for sure !!!!!! and i want a frag of it.....
it does have a few differnt color morphs ,and i think i just saw a new 1 and im jealous ...................

[humanremainz]

that is Cespitularia for sure !!!!!! and i want a frag of it.....
it does have a few differnt color morphs ,

[humanremainz]

Patwa, thats a nice efflatounaria in the back ground of your latest pic........

[Patwa]

Originally posted by mikekman
Awesome looking coral. Patwa, were you able to identify it?

Also does anyone here have an idea what it might be?

I was thinking cesp but can't see the glitters so I'm unsure too.
Perhaps someone has a similar one and can post pics?

thanks Mike! yeah....i've been fairly sure it's a Cespitularia for a while, but what bugs me is that is does not show any iridescence like other pics of cesp i've seen on the web..that is, no visible calcium spicules at all!

Originally posted by humanremainz
that is Cespitularia for sure !!!!!! and i want a frag of it.....
it does have a few differnt color morphs ,and i think i just saw a new 1 and im jealous ...................

Patwa, thats a nice efflatounaria in the back ground of your latest pic........

heheh....thanks mate! i'm super glad i was able to secure a frag of this.....and i'm happy to say i've got 3 separate frags of this growing out now .......gotta spread the love! but yeah..i'd love to ship to you folks in the US, but export laws are ..well, a p.i.a.

oh and that efflatounaria you saw is actually a Palau Nepthea........well, I got the frag as a "Palau Nepthea"...and it does look similar to other pics i've seen before...but hey, who knows for sure....no one! heheh

here's a pic of the mother colony of my Palau Nepthea mother colony



Zach

[Patwa]

this must be my lucky day........when i google-poked "efflatouaria", I found this site, with a very, very similar pic of my Cespitularia....what a coincidence!.and it came with all the species info as well....woot!

nice!

http://www.poppe-images.com/images/i...icid=921660#fs

Zach

[Patwa]

found another candidate for a match with my cespitularia......hmmmm

http://www.poppe-images.com/images/i...p?picid=902892

Zach.

[mikekman]

Patwa, glad to hear back from you. The two images you just showed........they do look like your coral. Maybe its a effla and maybe its a cesp. Maybe you have a hybrid!

Can you show more pictures of it? How is it growing for you?

Mike

[Patwa]

Here's an updated shot of two of the mother colonies....growth was pretty intense for a while, but it has noticeably slowed down these days. I bet the growth was spurred by my constant fragging during the summer..heheh



I have a third mother colony in my display (the two above are in my frag tank), and it's doing the most unusual thing....it's growing what looks like a FOOT! that is, I believe it's in the process of self-propagation...i'll try and snap a pic of it this evening...it's wild!

Zach

[Sanjay]

What you have there is an effloutanria. It bascially looks likes cespitularia, but grows by putting out a foot (fat stolon) that attaches to rocks and starts up another colony.

Here are some picture of my colony:






What other interesting/not so common soft corals are out there ?

sanjay.

[anonymousadrian]

do they pulse?

[humanremainz]

i dont know if i'd call what Cespitularia does pulsing, but it does something similar.