Coral Id help please

[Agnes]

Can someone help me with finding out what kind of coral this is? I'm not trying to be lazy or anything, I've looked at many, many web photos trying to compare and relate. And I've bought a book on aquarium corals that I've gone through and a book on marine inverts which has a coral section and I've gone through that too. But my brain does not handle this task well. I've never been very good at going from photos to living things and recognizing them.

I've uploaded a couple of photos:

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=197337&papass=&sort=1&thecat=500

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=197343&papass=&sort=1&thecat=500

I bought this almost 2 years ago and it has survived all of my learning experiences until now it looks better than it ever has.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Justin74]

Looks like a Nemenzophyllia, or a fox coral to me.

-Justin

[WendyMc]

Does it have a stony skeleton? Does its flesh feel leathery, or is it slimy & soft?

[Agnes]

I've wondered about the fox coral but just didn't know.

Yes it has a stony skeleton, very sharp and pointy looking when it deflates. That's one of the things that makes it hard for me. When it deflates the skeleton sticks out and there are deep "valleys" but all day long it is inflated to the point it almost looks flat on top.

I will admit to the poor thing not doing very well until lately. I used to not be able to see the mouthes at all and now they are very distinct. And it didn't used to inflate so much as it does now.

It is very reactive to food now too. I put some filter feeder food in the tank one day and this coral went nuts with putting out tentacles.

The flesh is very soft feeling. I don't know if it is slimy as I try very hard not to touch it or any of my animals. It is very soft looking as every time anyone goes by and moves the water you can see the flesh ripple with the wave movement. Like the skin is very thin and soft. But I've never seen any kind of polyp or polyp looking protrusions anywhere on it. Just the tentacles that come out occasionally and they look like tentacles not polyps. They are almost clear too, hard to see except for being so long.

That's about all I can think of right now. Thanks for helping.

I'll have to trust what y'all say because when I get to looking at different photos I just go around and around "it looks kind of like this but with out that, and it's shaped like that but doesn't have those, etc. etc." Thanks again.

[WendyMc]

Well it sounds like a fox coral to me and it's awesome that it has made that turn around. If you see those clear tentacles, try placing a very small piece of meaty seafood on it - I haven't had fox corals before, but most LPS love to be fed and will do even better when given bits of meaty food occasionally.

[Hormigaquatica]

Is there any way to get a closeup pic of it with it all closed up? That may help more than just looking at the tissue...

[Agnes]

I'm sure you are right. I bought a "fox" coral at a lfs that didn't look anything like this one but it didn't make it. But I know the common names are used with different species too so I discounted that coral as a guide here.

I will try and get a picture of it deflated. Maybe I can get a fish to co-operate and jump on it so it will deflate. They do that when I don't want them to so why not :)

What I have seen of the skeleton is it is spiky looking.

The really cool part of this is I may have a baby floating around the tank. It is the same color and inflated looking but looks kind of like a pear in shape. It isn't attached to anything so far. And it looks like it has a little mouth on the flatish side. It's pretty small so far, about the size of a green pea.

This same coral has melted a big rose petal shaped piece off which attached at the bottom and is now very healthy but separate from the original coral. So I am very surprised at the little droplet in the tank.

I'll see if I can get more photos to show what I mean.

Thanks for helping.
Agnes