Mystery Coral! What is this?
 

Here is a picture of a piece we received from one of our premium suppliers, there was no listing for this piece but we absolutely love it!

Anyone have any ideas of what it is? It has growth patterns like a Chalice but it isn't.

Frags of this beauty are being uploaded to the website this afternoon.

http://www.oceaniccorals.com/store/i.../Chalice02.JPG

http://www.oceaniccorals.com/store/i.../Chalice03.jpg

Could you take a pic of the whole piece?

I would need to see more of it, but I'm thinking Pavona, Pachyseris, or Leptoseris species. (EDIT: Latter two are deepwater corals FYI)

Hmm, does kinda look like that. We did think Pavona Coral but it just doesn't have all of the identifiable features!!

Tough to tell from the pic, send it to me and I will see what I can do about ident.:lol:
Nice colors though.

After staring at the photos for awhile, I'm voting Leptoseris because of the coloring mostly for now unless you can provide a pic of the whole piece??? If it is indeed Lepto or Pachy be careful not to burn it with lighting as both are deepwater species.

I kinda think myka is on the right path

http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/pulley-ri...onycorals.html

It does look very similar, I think she is on the right path! :mrgreen:

Here is another link, the only thing I notice is that the Leptoseris Coral does not seem to have the "eyes" that this one has........

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...3&js_enabled=0

Agaricia? I've never heard of that genus before...

Leptoseris explanata does. :D

That is a good "explanatan" I think you may have actually nailed this one. Good call. We have never seen this kind of Coral until now.

Very interesting.

I've never seen one in person either - only in literature. Are you fragging it or selling the colony?

Uhm...nevermind. :D

We are going to frag the colony as we would like to add it to our signature collection, due to its rarity we will see if we can grow frags from the mother colony.

We had to put a name to it for reference purposes so we called it a "Nebula" Coral. :wink:

definitely a lepto, i've had the almost exact same coral, they like low flow, low light, i dunno if its rare though as alot of stores in cali had them when i was there last month don't think they are really premium pieces like chalices as they were pretty cheap for some really colorful colonies down there anywhere from 40 bucks to 60.

Very good to know, maybe they are just not as common here or something; anyways, I have adjusted the price of the frags accordingly since we know what it is now.

Myka,

You have earned yourself a free frag for the ID.

How do I get my free frag?

:lol:

Aw, thanks! Funny thing is that I was already checking out your website, as I was planning to possibly order this piece. :D

Maybe we should have called it the signature Myka......

That would have been awesome!!

We see a lot of them out here in Ontario.