Rainbow Acan! YAY!

[enitnelaVeyaF]

Noticed on ebay that someone(s) having fun fragging their rainbow acan(s). That's the one Acanthastrea lordhowensis that I'm really jonesing for, and nice to see people aren't being stingy with them anymore. :)

Anyone here have a peice of that awesome coral? How fast does it grow for ya? A polyp a month or so? Or faster? Seems to be a fast grower if frags are consistantly being auctioned.

[apex003]

i'm no acan nazi, but i'll chime in with a couple comments that are bound to follow:
1) it's not a lord. i think it's an echinata or hillae.
2) that's not the "real" rainbow acan which was first owned by tigahboy, i think. his seemed to have more colors than the ones popping up on ebay right now.

i'll let the real fanatics take it from here...

[organism]

well, just like the ppe's with blane, I very much doubt that tigahboy's rainbow is any more or less real than the rest, just had time to colour up nicely... either way, whatever it's called it's an amazing coral :)

[coralite]

There is at least a half dozen corals very similar to tigah's rainbow acan. I have one and I can tell you that it is a very distinct acan and that they are all very colorful. As you can see from the pic of my rainbow, there is a wide range of color and my piece has three regions where one color dominates. One is orange, one is green and the other is mottled teal. The other rainbows I have seen seem to have mostly one color dominating but I am confident that all three colors could be induced to develop more given the right environmental stimulus. I believe the orange crush is a hillae that just happens to have orange dominating the color scene because my piece was part of trio that came in and one specimen was mostly orange but otherwise idnetical to my piece.
http://www.tidalblue.com/jake/acanbachir.JPG http://www.tidalblue.com/jake/acanbashirhafpuf.JPG

[RandyO]

Originally posted by apex003
i'm no acan nazi, but i'll chime in with a couple comments that are bound to follow:
1) it's not a lord. i think it's an echinata or hillae.
2) that's not the "real" rainbow acan which was first owned by tigahboy, i think. his seemed to have more colors than the ones popping up on ebay right now.

i'll let the real fanatics take it from here...

Im sure most would call me a "Real Fanatic":eek1:
It's definatly not a lord. I also think it is an A.echinata. The Rainbow Acan is the same species as the Orange Crush Acan. And while Tigahboy was the first person to chime in with this coral and name it, there are others out there. I would bet that they all do the same thing, and that is grow. Unlike some of the A.subechinatas, these corals seem more meaty/puffy, and grow like lords by putting rings of babys around the frags.
Whatever it is, it's a cool coral.

[njreefgrl_2182]

My orange crush/rainbow echinata
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/67773Pic009.JPG

[RandyO]

Very nice piece NJreefgirl. So thin and fraggable.

[RandyO]

Jake,
Do you really think that the Rainbow Acans are this coral?

Acanthastrea hillae
http://whelk.aims.gov.au/coralsearch/images/001-100/Large/3-02E.jpg
http://whelk.aims.gov.au/coralsearch/images/001-100/Large/3-01.jpg
http://whelk.aims.gov.au/coralsearch/images/001-100/Large/3-03.jpg
http://whelk.aims.gov.au/coralsearch/images/001-100/Large/3-04.jpg
http://whelk.aims.gov.au/coralsearch/images/001-100/Large/3bw-01.jpg

Characters: Colonies are cerioid and usually small but sometimes over 1.5 metres across. Corallites have irregular shapes and sometimes form short valleys with several centres. Colonies have moderately fleshy tissue over the skeleton. Colour: Red, cream and brown, with walls and oral discs of contrasting colours; sometimes mottled. Similar species: Acanthastrea ishigakiensis and A. maxima, both of which have relatively fleshy polyps. Habitat: Shallow reef environments. Abundance: Common only in high latitude locations.


Source reference: Veron (2000). Taxonomic references: Chevalier (1975), Veron and Pichon (1980). Identification guides: Veron (1986), Nishihira and Veron (1995).



This acan is grouped with A.maxima and A.ishigakiensis because they have larger corallites than the other 9 Acans. I have never seen a Rainbow or OC acan with the elongated corallite like the hillae have. Look at the description under color. No bright colors, and the hillae corallites are far from round. And they have a leathery look to them. No shine at all.

I know that many people call the Rainbow and OC Acan a Hillae, and most of the time I just let it be, but I would expect you to know better. Not that I know what it is. But I know it's not A.hillae.

[RandyO]

How about this?

Acanthastrea echinata

http://whelk.aims.gov.au/coralsearch/images/001-100/Large/2-04.jpg
http://whelk.aims.gov.au/coralsearch/images/001-100/Large/2-06.jpg
http://whelk.aims.gov.au/coralsearch/images/001-100/Large/2bw-01.jpg

Characters: Colonies are encrusting to massive and are rarely over one metre across. Corallites are cerioid or subplocoid, circular and have thick walls. Septa have long pointed teeth. Colonies have thick fleshy tissue over the skeleton which usually forms concentric folds. Colour: Uniform or mottled dull brown, grey or green, but sometimes brightly coloured. Similar species: Acanthastrea subechinata and A. brevis. See also A. hemprichii. Skeletons may be confused with those of the faviids Favites abdita or F. flexuosa, but underwater they do not resemble faviids because of the fleshy polyps. Habitat: Most reef environments. Abundance: Usually uncommon, but by far the most common Acanthastrea on tropical reefs.

Source reference: Veron (2000). Taxonomic references: Chevalier (1975), Veron and Pichon (1980). Identification guides: Randall and Myers (1983), Veron (1986), Sheppard and Sheppard (1991), Nishihira and Veron (1995), Coles (1996), Carpenter et al. (1997).


Round corallites, brightly colored, forms concentric folds, speta have long pointed teeth, fleshy polyps under water.

This would be my guess for the Rainbow and OC Acans.

But I guess it still all comes down to that. A guess.

[Blastomussaman]

My OC looks like njreefgrl's but I don't think its either Hillae or Echinata. I also didn't find any valleys with several centers. All the polyps are nicely separated unlike hillae.

Description wise is more similar to the echinata but my OC seems to have deeper valleys than shown. I've been puzzled on this for a while now. But I'll settle with calling it an Echinata. :cool:

[RandyO]

If you want my honest opinion, I think it is it's own species that may yet to be described. I think it's a cross between a lord and an echinata. I call it Lordata. Or maybe Echinhowensis.

[Frijoleros]

nice!!

[coralite]

Randy I agree with you tht the coral is distinct and I guess I was running with hillae because that is what has been applied to it. My specimen has the beaded texture but not to the degree that my other echinatas do. It also has the concentric folds but once again, this feature is more pronounced in my bony echinatas.

[RandyO]

Hey Jake,
Don't give in to the dark side. Don't keep the hillae myth going. :)

Sorry about that. Was just reading some Star Wars info.:strooper:

[Jus Reefin]

I agree with Randy that's it deff. not Hillea. That one on ebay is nothing like tigahboy's color wise. That IMO was just to market that piece. I am beginning to think more and more that these corals are not what we think they are. Maybe some unidentified species that we don't know about. With the marketing being flooded the experts should start doing a little more research and maybe shed some light.

[Blastomussaman]

I second Jus Reefin's statement. It is obvious that there are many "untaxed" corals in the world's reefs. Obviously there are much more coral diggers than experts.

I think it's about time for "New Corals of the World" book.

[njreefgrl_2182]

Originally posted by RandyO
Very nice piece NJreefgirl. So thin and fraggable.

Thanks Randy, I might just have to think about that. And by the way your red and grey lord frag is doing great. Thanks
Kimberly

[coralite]

For those of you who are interested in coral taxonomy you should give a glance at Veron's "Corals in space and time" as one of the main point Charly tries to get across is that our definition of a species in general is a fairly irrelevant artifact when compared to gene flow of corals. If we examined our acans with morphological (taxonomic) scrutiny we would get a whole lot less 'species' than if we examined them with a genetic (systematic) approach. What I am trying to get at is that another COTW would do us reefers no good as we already recognize way more varieties of corals than taxonomist do species. I personally have 5 different 'echinatas' including my rainbow and I can find something unique about each one's morphology. Does that make them separate species? I dont think so but either way, the experts are far from certain about the systematics of corals and for us to debate that a coral is one species over another is an excercise in futility. I still find it useful however to ascribe more likeness to one species over another justy to communicate to other reefers the characteristics of my specimens.

Is anyone familiar with the L-numbers of south american loricariid catfish? This was a system put together by european experts who were discovering these highly sought after catfish way faster than experts could describe them and they somehow came to a general undesrtanding about which L-numbers were associated with which fish. Perhaps the self-proclaimed acan heads could get together and develop and A-number system to describe the many varieties of acans that we seem to recognize even within species.

[AtlanticReef]

Here is the true rainbow acan colony that Tigaboy got a frag from this mother colony since 6 or 7 months ago....Picture without using photoshop or touch up....I traded with Hugo 11 heads and still got around 10 heads...

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/71850Rainbow_Acan.jpg

[Blastomussaman]

Atlantic, this acan has amazing colors. Did it come this way or morph in the tank? I noticed many of my acans changes color in time.

[RandyO]

Very well put Jake. I knew you had it in you.

Now... How do I get on this self proclaimed acan head list to help devleop the A-number system?

[AtlanticReef]

Yes, Blastomusssaman. It came this color in my tank, but after I fragged them the color is changed little darker....

[Sand Dollar]

Tony,

Sent you a PM, still waiting a response.

[gooch]

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/photopost/data/510/lps_040.jpg

Was told this is the rainbow. Pretty intense colors in person.

[enitnelaVeyaF]

JusReefin'...
Awesome. Considering lorrricaiads are slightly easier to define, we'll probably have a few year for the next COTW.
Maybe we shoudl all volunterr a polyp of our fa LPS to the cause?
LOL.
I already have a blato 1/2 polyp I could donate, tho, it is for sure a wellsi... :)

Nice to see intellectual thought here on RC ;)

[sbluscombe]

In a way far off land a long,long time ago I do bleave that the "original Orange Crush came for a fellow nammed Mike "the captive reef" frags.org. This was before the whole Acan craze!

[RandyO]

Originally posted by sbluscombe
In a way far off land a long,long time ago I do bleave that the "original Orange Crush came for a fellow nammed Mike "the captive reef" frags.org. This was before the whole Acan craze!

This is true. Mike even named the coral. There have been more of these corals imported. I have a piece of Mike's OC, and I can say it does not grow like any of my echinatas. It produces new polyps just like lords do. Tiny babies sprout up around the adult polyps. My echinata produced adult size polyps from other adult size polyps.
Here is a pic of my A.echinata colony, about 2 months after fragging it. The colony was flat. Where I took the frags, it started to grow down the side. But you can see they are full size polyps.
http://users.adelphia.net/~randyolszewski/images/Orange.jpg
http://users.adelphia.net/~randyolszewski/images/Orange2.jpg

[enitnelaVeyaF]

Great pics and info Randy, thanks.

[mschriskim]

I got my rainbow acan from tigahboy : ) - 3 polyps (1 big, 1 med, 1 baby)......

I will be posting a pic soon.