Speaking of Coral IDs..

A

Ashlar

I picked this up as a hitchhiker with a piece of macro. It polyps out like mad, and it's encrusting. When retracted, the 'mat' is flat. The base is hard, unlike a GSP, but I can't tell if it's calcified.

Encrusting gorgonian? Some kind of SPS? I know it's impossible to be for sure, just looking for candidates so that I can research further.

Sorry for the big pictures, but it's hard to get any idea of detail if you reduce them.

ID_retracted.jpg
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ID_polyped.jpg
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Scott

That may be either a type of encrusting porites or a species of pavona. I have a very green coral that I love that looks a lot like your first picture ( defferent color of course but same polyp look ). I got it from DNA and I had Shawn over to discuss it with me. He had it marked as "unknown". I told him it was a Pavona. He still said "unknown." And today he is still right, but I am now leaning towards an encrusting porites.
 
@gmax wrote:
Scott That may be either a type of encrusting porites or a species of pavona. I have a very green coral that I love that looks a lot like your first picture ( defferent color of course but same polyp look ). I got it from DNA and I had Shawn over to discuss it with me. He had it marked as "unknown". I told him it was a Pavona. He still said "unknown." And today he is still right said:
I respectfully disagree. Porites usually can not survive the rough transit of LR. Usually the only coral that can survive the burtal conditions of rock transmission and end up as a hitch hiker is the caribbean based Stephanocoenia or Siderastrea.

http://whelk.aims.gov.au/coralsearch/html/601-700/Species%20pages/618.htm

Siderastrea is a very common carribean hitcher that typically will look like a golf ball but can encrust into a dome like character like this like, but Scotts macro dosen't seem to show the honeycomb pattern.

http://whelk.aims.gov.au/coralsearch/html/601-700/Species%20pages/615.htm
Click to expand...
 
Man, I wish I had a better camera and a macro lens.

When it's completely retracted (rarely happens, it's even polyped at night, though not as much) the surface is smooth. You can't see any coralites. (That's one reason I'm not even sure it's an SPS).
 
Well maybe not then :?

Most hitchhikers on LR are the above. We could only be so lucky to have more :cry:
 
Did you know that there are over 50 different species of Porites? I didnt but I went and counted. We typically only see a few regularly imported.
 
Just for the sake of discussion this seems fairly close in appearance:

http://whelk.aims.gov.au/coralsearch/html/501-600/Species%20pages/534.htm
 
No, no smell.

I have porites on a christmas tree worm cluster, and when you wave the polyps down, they have a distinctive look (radial coralites, close cell walls..) this doesn't. (could be a different porites, no idea.)

I'm still not even sure it's a stony coral.
 
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