What is this Coral?

[Whatigot]

you don't have enough experience to look at one picture and compare it to what you have?

Come on now, how do you think you gain experience in Coral ID?
By identifying corals I'd imagine.....


In any case, based on my experiences and observations; I think it's porites.

[Oscar]

Originally Posted by Whatigot

you don't have enough experience to look at one picture and compare it to what you have?

I still check my driver's license to see what my name is, so no I am not going to hazard a guess on sketchy web photos.

[Whatigot]

hahahahaha....
Awesome.
That made my day.

[bv_reefer]

Originally Posted by Oscar

I still check my driver's license to see what my name is, so no I am not going to hazard a guess on sketchy web photos.

lmfao

[Snappy]

I guarantee the coral in that picture is not porites. Also christmas tree worms don't only host with porites. When diving I have seen them in everything from straight rock to acropora as well as porites.

[PzReefer]

I also have a piece of superman monti with two christmas tree worms in it. One red worm and one blue.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Snappy

It's not porites, that is actually a variety of Siderastrea sp. which is considered an LPS. They can extend fairly long sweepers at night so give it some room.

I've never even heard of this species...how does it differ from Porites? It looks VERY similar. If this is true (and I doubt it very little), then I bet there are A LOT of misidentified Porites out there!

[untamed]

I also have patches of that on my LR...which makes some sense considering that my rock is Florida aquacultured. I don't know what it is. While still alive at 1 year +, it has not really done well in my system. I've not attempted to target feed it.

[marie]

I believe Siderastea has larger calices (between 2-4mm) and have tentacles not an actual extended polyp like porites.
Porites has a smaller calice (1-1.5mm in diameter) and polyps that are similer to montiporas.
To me the photos don't look anything like a porites but then again I'm not a coral taxonomist....and I didn't stay in a holiday express inn last night

*edit* siderastrea also appears to be a very common coral in the atlantic, not so much in the pacific which would explain why some of us aren't very familiar with it

[justinl]

Siderastrea is a very common coral in the wild (so a hitcher is very plausible), but for whatever reason, it just isn't sold commercially very often.

Porites is a SPS. from the pic, I would say the corallites on your coral are relatively big... much bigger than porites porites at least, so i would rule that one out. Siderastrea is definitely a plausible guess, but in all fairness it is just an educated guess. A lot of very unrelated corals look alike and identifying them can be tricky. For example, you might never be able to tell a specimen of acan from a favid like a blasto or micromussa without close examination of the skeleton (which you might never see until it's dead). Applies here too (obviously, given the debate goin on).

as for the Xmas tree worm thing, the worms can live on a lot of different corals, but you have to keep in mind that the term "xmas tree worm" is actually a broad term that designates a whole (very misunderstood) complex of species. In the wild, it seems that they are obligated to live on some kind of live coral (or else they get eaten), but in a tank where nothing will bore into their calcium tube, they *probably* could survive anywhere from rock to dead coral. Greg, the ones you see on the rocks probably just technically aren't xmas tree worms... but hell, a lot of the feather duster worms do look a lot alike. past that you can't really generalize and say that they must live on porites and porites alone... because it just isn't true. see link below. it's a good short read and clears this issue up in my mind.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...002/toonen.htm