Mystery Acro ID

[kroe]

I am having a really hard time IDing my new acro... it came in super blue and green, but browned out in one of the LFS's tanks. Hopefully I can get the color to come back; it was one of the nicest colored acros I have ever seen. I dug through Corals of the World for hours and can't figure out what it is (or find anything similar). This piece is about 5" long, the coralites are very spread out and pronounced.

Ideas?

<img src="http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f339/kennethroe/NewAcro.jpg"/>

Thanks,
-Ken

[drake66]

how does it look w/o the flash?

[kroe]

Here is a side view with no flash... Keep the size in mind when you look at the picture. This would look like a normal little acro frag shape wise, but this thing is about 5".

<img src="http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f339/kennethroe/NewAcro2.jpg"/>

[Chaotic Reefer4u]

nice...

[kroe]

Nice shape, ugly color... I can't wait to post it when it colors back up - it was so crazy before it browned out. In the mean time though... anyone have an id?

[mhltcob]

I don't understand what your looking for. Its an acropora sp. Acro's and most other corals for that matter cannot be identified to the species level from pictures.

[kroe]

People ID corals on here all the time. I realize that it's not easy, but is certainly not impossible.

[mhltcob]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6880863#post6880863 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kroe
People ID corals on here all the time. I realize that it's not easy, but is certainly not impossible.

exactly, which im not sure who these "expert" taxonomist are, they certainly sound more sure of their identifications than many taxonomist and coral biologist are who actually examine frags off of colonies with the tissue removed. people think they can id a coral because they have seen a couple different types of acros in some books (which may or may not be the correct ID in the first place) and base there "ID" by which one looks the closest visually. however, visually observable characteristics from pictures like yours are not species defining in most cases. Take most Montipora "capricornis", which actually could be about 6 dozen different species.