Terminological confusion ... A-hermatypic...al   2/22/07
Hello Crew,
<John>
I'm curious to have a precise and accurate understanding of the term 'ahermatypic', if for no reason other than to impress and amaze the  less-knowledgeable.
<Heeee!>
  The term is used in differing ways by differing people, all apparent experts.
<Love that term... Ex= "previous", Spurts?>
On the WWM site, the term seems to be  
consistently used to refer to those corals that possess no zooxanthellae.
<Mmm, yes... a common "understanding"...>
But, for example, fishbase.org explicitly defines 'ahermatypic' as "non reef-building" (this at http://www.fishbase.org/ Glossary/Glossary.cfm?TermEnglish=ahermatypic).
<This is the more formal... correct meaning of the word>
Even more confusingly, on the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) website (specifically at http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/reef/reind4.htm)  Tubastraea is called ahermatypic in virtue of its having "no zooxanthellae algae in tissues and [being] non- reefbuilding".  I sure hope my tax dollars aren't financing the spread of ignorance...
<Heeeee! Too late... D'oh!>
I can tolerate a lot of confusion, but this is really getting to me!   
Now, I'm sure the WWM crew is correct, but could you say a bit about what makes your usage correct (by reference to etymology, perhaps, or terminological history).
<Careful here... I am a huge fan of "word origin" discussions, games...>
Thanks for any information, and thank you very much for maintaining WWM -- it has been a valuable source of   information on all aspects of the hobby.
-John from Minneapolis
<Well... I'll give this query a stab... A= ablative, Lingua Latina, meaning "away from"... hermatypic corals! Okay, am cheating... (means "like stone"... see here, young man: http://phoenixandturtle.net/excerptmill/Gasper.htm) these are the Scleractinia that don't produce much of  (yes, with/in conjunction with those endosymbiotic (Shades of Lynn Margulis!) algae... those large, clunky carbonate skeletons... giving them (as it turns out, falsely) the big credit for "reef building" (a few algae, mostly rhodophytes deserve the props here)... Enough already? BobF>

Coral ID   6/27/06
Hi crew hope you are all fine, Been a few months since I last spoke to you. I have set up a 120G (UK) tank with a 65G sump to have
as a reef. Tank has been cycled and has been officially running for 4 months.
I added 100lbs of new Fiji liverock and left the tank free of fish for 3 months to build on the pod population and various algaes to grow. Of which I have
an abundance of scroll algae (beautiful) and alot of Caulerpa racemosa and a tiny amount of Halimeda. My parameters have never been so steady, sg 1.024, temp
78F, ammonia 0, nitrate  0, nitrite 0, calcium 390, pH 8.2 (reverse photo period), alk 9.6.
Anyway to the point, I have attached an image to the email, it was a piece of live rock which I could see was an old coral skeleton, I looked and guessed it may
have been a Stylophora but I am no expert yet! The rock has a lot of tiny holes which I guessed would be where the polyps would come out from when it was
alive. Since being in the tank now for 4 months it appears that there is some orange growth of I guess flesh although firm to the touch and as you will see
from the picture tiny white dots which I know are polyps as they come out during day and night, these are small about an eight of an inch across.
Could you shed some light and tell me what it is?
It's located 12" from the top of the water surface, in medium flow water with 2 x 250W MH.
<Do not see any photo attachment, Dave.  James (Salty Dog)>
Many thanks
Dave G (UK)