Making sure its the right I.D

[ClownReef®]

Ok guys, sorry to bother..AGAIN..but just want to make sure its A. valida ...does anybody else have a different opinion?..Thanks! :D

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f107/Reef69/DSC00399.jpg

[ClownReef®]

Hellooo??? .. :D

[oddballs]

nobody is ansering because you cant id acropora from a pic only.your guess is as good as anyone elses!

[trueblackpercula]

looks like its blue to me :)

[RCS]

Doesn't look like a valida to me. Similar, but not quite. The pattern on the radial corallites seems too "soft", whereas valida normally have a spikier pattern to them. Looks similar though. Maybe A. cerealis? Just a guess. It's nice any way you slice it.

[ClownReef®]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7151600#post7151600 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by oddballs
nobody is ansering because you cant id acropora from a pic only.your guess is as good as anyone elses!

Thats weird..I see tons of I.D threads around here..out of which most are identified..

Anyways..I wished it was cerealis..those are amazing.. Im still thinking its valida..but ill keep looking, thanks guys!!

Oh, its a bit blue cause i took it on VHOs only..:D

[RichConley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7153243#post7153243 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by iReef69
Thats weird..I see tons of I.D threads around here..out of which most are identified..

And almost all are wrong.

You can't even differentiate half the acropora species using bare skeleton. Most of them shouldnt even be different species. Theres currently a push in the scientific community to merge a ton of the acropora species, because many of them are redundant, and the only difference in the corals is collection location.

[Amphiprion]

Looks like an Acropora to me :D

[MiddletonMark]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7153243#post7153243 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by iReef69
Thats weird..I see tons of I.D threads around here..out of which most are identified..
AKA, `guess at' ;)

There's two schools of thought on it - but I know I'm not alone in thinking that this method (http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=366161) would be the way to tell species ID definitively.

Others ID from photo.

To each their own, but the more I've read the more I doubt visual/photo ID. [Veron's got some great quotes about how two different species in the same reef micro-environment will look far more like each other than two of the exact species in different environments .... making me personally skeptical of visual ID's].

Perhaps that's part of the reason for few responses ...

[ClownReef®]

I dont really care if it is or not..i want the closest "guess" there is.

[jay24k]

Doesn't look like valida to me. Too much blue in the pic and can't determine the structure of the coral. Try in a regular color next time and it will help

[ClownReef®]

Thanks Jay. I left my camera at a friends house, ill pick it up today and ill try to shoot a better pic..

[RichConley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7155649#post7155649 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MiddletonMark
AKA, `guess at' ;)

There's two schools of thought on it - but I know I'm not alone in thinking that this method (http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=366161) would be the way to tell species ID definitively.

Others ID from photo.

To each their own, but the more I've read the more I doubt visual/photo ID. [Veron's got some great quotes about how two different species in the same reef micro-environment will look far more like each other than two of the exact species in different environments .... making me personally skeptical of visual ID's].

Mark, we recently had Rob Toonen (some reasearch institute in hawaii, can't remember which one) out for a local meeting, and he was saying that now all the real experts wont give an ID on an acropora without knowing where it was collected, and refuse to ID aquarium specimens. He said that because there are no differences even on a skeletal level with a lot of these, so the only way to differentiate, is if you know collection location.

I guess theyre beginning to think that there are only 10-15 species of acropora, and a lot of what we see as different species are in effect just regional morphs.


I totally agree with Vernon in your quote though.

[MiddletonMark]

Not too suprised ... Verons book `Corals in Space and Time' [all IMO] argues against Linnaean classification and tries to demonstrate failings in the traditional taxonomy.
Not exactly a simple book, but great to understand ancient corals, their distributions, and has a lot of interesting information.
[bivalve `reefs', calcite skeletons ... all sorts of neat stuff in the past]

/hijack

[ClownReef®]

The reason i ask for an I.D is because i want to have something to call my corals..If 3 out of 4 people think its a certain coral, ill go with that..If the I.D is wrong oh well..at least i dont know it is..lol..

Here's a better picture..

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f107/Reef69/DSC00443.jpg