Logo
Please visit our Sponsors
FAQs about Stony Coral, Cnidarian Identification 3

Related FAQs: Stony Coral ID 1, Stony Coral ID 2, Stony Coral ID 4, Stony Coral ID 5, Stony Coral ID 6, Stony Coral ID 7, Stony Coral ID 8, Stony Coral ID 9, Stony Coral ID 10, Stony Coral ID 12, Stony Coral ID 13, Stony Coral ID 14, Stony Coral ID 15, & Cnidarian Identification, Stony FAQs 1, Stony FAQs 2, Foods/Feeding/Nutrition, Disease/Health, PropagationCoral CompatibilityStony Coral Behavior,

Related Articles: Stony Corals

Coral IDs   6/13/06 Hi Crew, I found a few pictures of Monti and Acro on the net. Can you please help me with the scientific name? thanks    Mohamed <Mmm, the first two look like Poritids to me... but could be Montipora spp., the last is some sort of Acropora species, but I can't make out much more from this image. You may want to invest in Veron's works... or seek them out at a large library. Bob Fenner>

Coral ID - 03/09/06 Can someone at WWM identify this coral?  I have been finding it quite difficult to pin down.  To add some description to the linked pics, the coral is encrusting the rock, and the green tips are about 1mm protruding from the base.  They also wave around a bit in the current.  This coral has approximately doubled in surface area in the span of about 5 months. http://static.flickr.com/53/109928957_14f3bd1b0f_b.jpg http://static.flickr.com/41/109928959_b82e8557e6_b.jpg http://static.flickr.com/51/109928960_2d1e851ae0_b.jpg http://static.flickr.com/50/109928961_2b6d82cf00_b.jpg Feel free to re-publish any of these pics on the WWM site. <<I'm not quite sure; you either have a specie of Hydnophora or a fragment of Pavona decussata.  Regards, EricR>> Thanks,
Jason

Coral ID (The Store Had No Idea!?) - 02/03/06 Howdy everyone, <<Howdy>> As previously mentioned this is a great website! <<Thank you>> I've been reading a lot since my discovery of it and have learned a lot. <<Excellent>> Attached is a pic of a frag coral that I obtained from my LFS.  They were not sure of the type of coral <<Hmm, no idea at all?  Might be time to find another LFS.>> so if you could point me to the family or genus that would be cool. <<Impossible to tell for sure by this picture, but looks to be an Acroporid of some type.>> Also it has a growth on it and a few tubes, I think they are some type of worm. <<Possibly...there are organisms (a specie of crab...barnacle) that will make their homes in the flesh of acroporids.  I suppose a worm could do the same.>> Is this growth harmful or is it just part of the corals coloration or maybe a sunburn? <<Mmm...again, hard to say.  The dark patches may be bruising from rough handling...or they may be indicative of parasitic/bacterial infection.  I would keep an eye on this.>> I have a 65 gal tank with two 10K, 175 MH's and the coral is placed halfway in the tank. <<Should be fine.>> Thanks for your response and your time! <<Very welcome, EricR>>

Coral ID 12/22/05 Hi,  I am hoping you can help me ID this piece of coral that my loving husband got for me today for Christmas.  My husband can't remember the name, only that it is a hard coral. lol  I have looked everywhere and the only thing that closely resembles it is a brain.  When he first brought it home, I thought it was a clam cause of the shape of its mantle but it is indeed not.  There are spiky ridges all over it and if it has tentacles/polyps they haven't extracted yet.  The crown is white with a pink center....the color of the pic is rather poor.  I hope this helps. <Sorry to say that you either have a very ignorant or very unscrupulous fish store.  It looks like this was probably Lobophyllia, but it is very much dead.  If this is what it looked like when purchased, I would demand a refund.> If you don't mind, I have another coral question.  I have two (red and green) Montipora digitata frag, the green one seems to be secreting this clear spider web like slime.  Is this normal or should I be worried?  Thanks <If the coral looks normal otherwise (good rich color, polyps extended, not tissue recession), I would not worry at all.  If it really bothers you, you could blow it off with a turkey baster (a new, clean one please!! Every reefkeeper should have one.)  Best Regards.  AdamC.>
Anthony and Steve, The upside is that it may actually be easier to ID in this condition!   Heartbreaking that some store actually took this guys money. Adam

Coral ID and Econ. Lesson - Supply and Demand  11/14/05 Hey guys hope everything is going well, the far northeast is really starting to get chilly!!! I had a quick question for you and please take your time with your response if you're really busy. My local LFS is always poor at identifying livestock they get in and they have a LPS that they are selling as Favia sp. and feel it could possibly be an Acanthastrea sp. (it is unlike any Favia I have seen for sale) but am unsure of how to distinguish between the two.  <See J.E. Veron's works re... and the references beyond> It is a rather large piece with many corallites and from the pictures on the website, a few species of both genus <Genera> look rather similar. I have never seen any Acanthastrea sp. in person which makes possible obvious visual distinctions difficult for me. <A diverse genus... morphologically and in terms of color> Most of the taxonomy information in my textbooks deals with the physical coral skeleton and bare corallites which is obviously the best and sometimes only means of ID, and I understand the possible difficulty in taxonomy of coral from a coral ecology class I took with Bob Steneck (are you familiar with him?), <Nope> but these identification means are not so helpful to me who wants this coral alive and fully intact!  I also have one more question about Acanthastrea sp. if you don't mind. Why does this species command such a high price in the trade? <Demand> My text books say it is a rather common species of coral throughout much of the Indo-Pacific and eastern coast of Africa and am confused to the correlation between common coral and high price. Thanks for all your help, you guys are great. Matthew R. Tyree University of Maine School of Marine Science <Mmm, your family name has a friend in this field... Steve Tyree... Do look at/up Veron's works here. Bob Fenner> 

Review of Coral ID CDROM & Veron Books  9/17/05 Dear Crew, <Paul> I am interested in coral identification and have found two pricey coral reference materials available from the following URL: www.aims.gov.au/coralidcd.  One is a "Coral ID" CDROM and the other is a 3-volume set of books by Dr. Veron, entitled "Corals of the World."  If any WWW Crew member is familiar with these materials, I'd appreciate reading his review or comments. Thanks very much. Regards, Paul. <Am very familiar with both... My review of the CD is here: http://wetwebmedia.com/fis.htm and have Veron's works... they are excellent... for identification purposes... not so much for aquarium use though otherwise. Do take a look at the survey text by Eric Borneman... Bob Fenner>

Re: Review of Coral ID CDROM & Veron Books  9/19.5/05 Dr. Fenner, <Just Bob, please. No doctorate> Dr. Veron is the author of the "Coral ID" CDROM in the URL: www.aims.gov.au/coralidcd.  It is not part of the 3-CDROM set from Quantum Leap or Two Little Fishes that you had reviewed earlier.   <Oh... yes... sorry for the confusion.> Nevertheless I appreciate your comments regarding Dr. Veron's "Corals of the World" 3-volume publication that is often packaged with this CDROM. <Yes... None other than another "Fenner" involved in these projects, sheesh> Between Eric Borneman's "Aquarium Corals" book and the CDROM's that you have reviewed, which would be better suited for the average aquarist such as myself trying to identify his corals? <For ID, the CD's... but if only one choice period, Borneman's book for overall usefulness. Bob Fenner> Thanks very much.
Regards,
 

Quick coral ID 8/6/05 Greetings Bob & Crew! <<Hello Ray. Ted on this end>> Sent this one off about 2 weeks ago and still  no response.  Lost in cyberspace? <<Sorry>> Anyway, found this little guy growing on a small LR frag.  Thought it was just coralline when I got it but it looks like coral as it is growing.  It has very thin clear-white filaments that come out of the ends during the day and at night (from what I can see). No idea what it is.  I've done searches and nothing looks familiar.  Perhaps some sort of SPS?  I've also had sun coral suggested, but does not look right to me. It's currently near the top of a rock pile, under MH lighting and seems to be doing fine after a few weeks. <<Identifying corals from pictures is difficult. Having said that, I am going to take a stab at this and suggest it may be Tubastrea coccinea (Orange Cup Coral). See http://www.wetwebmedia.com/dendrophylliidae.htm.>> Thanks!
<<Your welcome - Ted>>

Coral ID help 7/18/05 Good afternoon, I am hoping that you can help me determine the species of coral that is in the attached picture.  At the LFS, all they said was that it is a brain coral. Thanks for you help! Kim <A Cynarina. See here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/mussids2.htm Bob Fenner>
Acanthastrea echinata 8/3/05 Hello (again) <Hi Niki, Ali here...> Hope your day finds you well.....could you possibly identify this coral for me? <Sure can...> I looked around, and I couldn't make a definite I.D. It was shipped to us as a Micromussa (not what it looks like to me!) <Acanthastrea echinata, great coral, I just hope you didn't pay too much!> <Take care, Ali>  



Become a Sponsor Features:
Daily FAQs FW Daily FAQs SW Pix of the Day FW Pix of the Day New On WWM
Helpful Links Hobbyist Forum Calendars Admin Index Cover Images
Featured Sponsors: