Reef Pilot's Undersea Oasis

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

I think that may be it. Thanks. Or at least I found another pic on the internet that is a pretty good match.
http://urbansage.com/images/Acropora_sp03.jpg

Never heard of it before, though. Guess it is not a designer acro,...LOL.

Doing more research on the internet, it seems there are a lot of corals called Acropora Sp, and many don't at all resemble my coral, or the link above. So is this just a generic catch-all name? Haha, maybe I should give it a name..., before the kien does...

[lastlight]

There are a lot of species under the acropora genus. It's just a very specific way of describing a coral if you're like me and generally don't know what type it is.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acropora

[asylumdown]

first, wow. Your tank is gorgeous.

second, 'sp' is common biological shorthand for 'species'. Acropora is the genus that a good number of our SPS fall in to, the other major genus represented in SPS tanks is Montipora.

For example, 'Bonsai' generally refers to Acropora valida, 'millies' are all various colour morphs of Acropora millepora, Oregon tort is Acropora tortuosa, and I think 'Pink Lemonade' is Acropora nasuta (but don't quote me)

On the other hand, a 'Monti cap' is Montipora capricornis, and all 'digies' (green digi, red digi, etc.) are Montipora digitata

If someone doesn't know the exact species (and this is true in pretty much the entire world of biology), they'll state the genus followed by 'sp.', so 'Acropora sp.' potentially refers to all 149 described species of Acropora, which is why you got such varied results when you searched that term.

In your photos, the overwhelming majority of species are in the Acropora genus, likely several being different colour morphs of the same species, though you've got at least one from the Seriatophora genus (birds nest), a couple Montiporas, and what might be a Stylophora or a Pocillopora, then your LPS.

I do a lot of work out in the grasslands doing vegetation assessments, the entire family of blue grasses (genus Poa), of which Kentucky blue grass (the main component of most Canadian lawns) are incredibly difficult to identify to the species level because there's so bloody many of them and vegetatively they all look the same. The reports we produce almost always list the Poas we find as 'Poa sp.' because we just can't tell what it is with any more specificity than that.

Finally, the common names that you know, like 'Pink lemonade' or 'Strawberry shortcake' are pretty meaningless from a biological point of view. Within a single coral species, colour morphs are HIGHLY variable. The original 'Pink lemonade' coral that everyone is so hot and bothered over and in so many people's tanks are all clonal descendants from a single wild colony that very well may have been completely unique in its coloration for its species. That species likely has dozens (perhaps hundreds) of other colour morphs in people's aquariums, and perhaps thousands or hundreds of thousands of other possible colour morphs still out in the ocean. That one morph from that one colony only has a 'common' name because it happened to be particularly beautiful, and someone at the original coral farm where it turned up had good marketing sense. This is true for all 'named' corals.

That's why I think Kien was only half joking when he suggested you name it. All the famous named corals (red planet, Oregon tort, pink lemonade, etc. etc.) were just random wild caught specimens until someone gave them a name and started selling them, which means that the overwhelming majority of corals you buy or see in people's tanks don't really have 'names' beyond their genus & species (which tell you very little about how pretty a coral will be). If yours is not a direct frag of some mother colony that is already named and out there in circulation (and most corals aren't), and it developed in to a particularly beautiful and desirable specimen, you could name it whatever you want and start selling it.

Who knows, maybe in 10 years people could be coveting 100 dollar frags of 'Reef Pilot's Green Popsicle'.

[asylumdown]

ugh that was long, I mean - to clarify

What makes 'pink lemonade' different from all other Acropora nasuta (if that's the right species), is that true 'pink lemonades' are direct frags, however many steps removed, off the mother colony that was originally given that name. Theoretically, there could be other A. nasuta colonies out there in people's tanks that look EXACTLY the same in terms of coloration as 'true' pink lemonade, but if they weren't grown from frags off that one specific colony that was originally named 'Pink lemonade', it's technically not.

Pink Lemonade has an interesting history in captivity, it started out as just some random wild acro from Reeffarmers (owned by Steve Tyree, hence 'Tyree's Pink Lemonade). It got passed around a small community of reefers for a while, had a couple of different names, and now, 15 years later is a staple in the hobby. Your pink lemonade is a clone (aka, frag) of that original coral. You could have three other A. nasuta in your tank, even looking very similar, and they wouldn't be 'pink lemonade' because they're not clones of that one original colony, which itself is a clone of probably a single wild specimen. It's why there's more corals than common names, not many morphs get branded like that

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

ugh that was long, I mean - to clarify

Thanks, and kind of confirmed what I was learning about that sp suffix. It is interesting that i did indeed find one pic on the internet that looks exactly like mine (at least to my eyes), but also just has the sp designation. So maybe I should name it.... haha.

And thanks for looking. My tank is still a very early work in progress, and just starting with the SPS. I am learning lots, though, which is a big part of the fun.

[asylumdown]

haha if that's just starting you're going to need to clear some shelf space for your tank of the month awards.

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

haha if that's just starting you're going to need to clear some shelf space for your tank of the month awards.

Shhh, you're not helping....

But honestly, my tank is still almost bare on one side, and I have too much SPS on top where it is shading the lower spots. So, it will take some time and shifting around some rocks, before it looks decent. Coral and rock placement is just another part of the learning, I guess.