Help identifying corals

[chopper320]

Can anyone point me to a good source on the Internet to learn more about identifying and distinguishing corals?

For instance I posted a pic of a frag I got in the lps identification forum and someone said its an acan which I'm glad to know but I want to know how to make that identification on my own. It looks very similar to some photos of blastomussa or cynarina to me as well.

[biocube14g]

Usually u can only accurately classify the coral under the species, such as acan, acro, digitata, hammer..... Beyond that is an endless realm of combinations or the genus itself.... Most of the time a coral such a joker zoas are called whAt it is because it is simmar to the originally discover zoa.... There are just so many ways a coral can/ will change.

[a.browning]

No offense, but I'm not sure I understand the previous post. All corals have both a genus and a species. Genus being more broad, and containing possible multiple species, whereas species is as specific as it gets. Within a species, there can be color variations, but it's still the same species. Acanthastrea and acropora are genuses, digitata is species, and hammer is just a common name for a couple different species of coral.

It can take some time to be able to quickly and accurately be able to identify every coral species. If you're looking for pics and examples of different corals, liveaquaria might be a good place to check out. They always have a bunch of different corals with pictures and scientific names so you can learn to identify them. Identifying corals comes with experience and can take some time.

[biocube14g]

Of course All corals have a species and genus, but it is neatly impossible to quickly and accurately catagorize them

[chopper320]

Thanks. I've been looking at the images on liveaquaria and other sites and that helps but some seem hard to distinguish to me. I guess like you said, it will just take time.