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,
Paul.