What's on my live rock? LPS edition

elefink · 01/28/2019, 11:59 AM

I got some really alive live rock, and it included a couple types of evidently hard corals. I'm wondering what other people think they are.

The first is this type. This is the largest colony, and my hermit crabs have knocked it down at the moment. I probably need to decide where it should go and put it there. It broke off the live rock while I was putting it in the tank. There are two smaller colonies on one of the rocks. All three colonies are growing.

The coral is brown. Each polyp extends when it's happy and at night. During the day, the tips are slightly green, and at night they are blue. It is definitely making a skeleton of cylindrical polyps about a half inch in length and a quarter inch across the top.

elefink · 01/28/2019, 12:02 PM

The second colony has two polyps. They look like this during the day but are orange at night. These have grown, but not started any new ones in the last month. They are each a bit more than a half inch across now, maybe 3/4".

elefink · 01/29/2019, 11:43 AM

I'm gonna say that to me the first one looks something like branching Cyphastrea. Any opinions on that?

01/28/2019, 11:59 AM	#1
elefink Regurgitated Fender Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Silver Spring, MD Posts: 721	What's on my live rock? LPS edition I got some really alive live rock, and it included a couple types of evidently hard corals. I'm wondering what other people think they are. The first is this type. This is the largest colony, and my hermit crabs have knocked it down at the moment. I probably need to decide where it should go and put it there. It broke off the live rock while I was putting it in the tank. There are two smaller colonies on one of the rocks. All three colonies are growing. The coral is brown. Each polyp extends when it's happy and at night. During the day, the tips are slightly green, and at night they are blue. It is definitely making a skeleton of cylindrical polyps about a half inch in length and a quarter inch across the top. __________________ MB In my universe, Spock has a beard. Current Tank Info: Returning to hobby after a 10 year hiatus with a Biocube 32.

01/28/2019, 12:02 PM	#2
elefink Regurgitated Fender Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Silver Spring, MD Posts: 721	The second colony has two polyps. They look like this during the day but are orange at night. These have grown, but not started any new ones in the last month. They are each a bit more than a half inch across now, maybe 3/4". __________________ MB In my universe, Spock has a beard. Current Tank Info: Returning to hobby after a 10 year hiatus with a Biocube 32.

01/29/2019, 11:43 AM	#3
elefink Regurgitated Fender Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Silver Spring, MD Posts: 721	I'm gonna say that to me the first one looks something like branching Cyphastrea. Any opinions on that? __________________ MB In my universe, Spock has a beard. Current Tank Info: Returning to hobby after a 10 year hiatus with a Biocube 32.