My official identification is it is a beautiful orange coral!
I agree with Gary on the fact that ID of corals is tough enough when you have it in hand, dead and bleached under a microscope. Observing a living specimen is slightly less difficult. A picture is almost impossible. There are three possible corals that this could be (Montipora and Porites being the top two)...
Having said all that it <i>appears </i> to be a Montipora to me. If you want a more exact idea or why I think so, check out <i>Montipora efflorescens</i> specifically. I am NOT identifying the species here, just one of the encrusting members that share characteristics with the one pictured. As bad as it sounds; the tissue here (I believe; especially around the corralites) is the give away of being a Montipora instead of Porites (but still VERY close call, really could go either way with the limitations of pictures). If you want to send me a frag I could always check it out closer :lol:
Again like Gary said these are Crazy difficult to ID specifically. Porites and Montipora's overlap in many of their characteristics; so much so they used to be considered the same Genus. Then you have the fact that Montiporas are the second most abundant corals in terms of species, and so on.
Anyone that tries to ID down to the species level is most likely masochistic in nature
The online version of Veron's books are at http://whelk.aims.gov.au/coralsearch/coralsearch.php
As great as these books and this site is, it was never meant for identification. If you would like a book on Montipora or Acropora species level ID, let me know and you can borrow mine or I can tell you where to get them. They both are upper Biology college level texts, so there is a little learning curve, but it is not too bad (at least not as bad as the microscope part!)
