My new Bali Acros (1 Viewer)

[t0mmy108]

I was out taking Realestate photos and decided to drop by City Pets just right when today's shipment arrived. I brought home three new pieces to add to my collection. I have no idea what they are. so any educated guesses would be helpful.

 

[Guest]

I've got the same as your first pic. I got mine from Jonh about a month ago. Mine is growing out in a table like growth form. Has the brightest blue tips I've seen.

To me the second and thrid pic look to be some of the varying tri-colors.

 

[t0mmy108]

cool. can't wait for iy to grow out. Makes me wanna go back there tomorrow and get the rest of them.

 

[Naka]

Nice Tommy, you're going to love it when it grows out. I think 1st one is a. elseyi or insignis. I agree w/ Sue 2nd and 3rd are tricolors. Here's what your a. elseyi is going to look in 3 months. Crazy pastel blue colors, IMO more blue than the Tyree LE Steve Elias Super Blue Staghorn! What do you think Sue, crazy blue right?

Nov. 20

Yesterday

Naka

 

[fishcraze]

yeah, that first one grow fast! the branches will grow out very long and take a lot of space The 2nd and 3rd one looks like granulosa due to the chubby tips - but i'm not a coral ID expert like others

Tom, if you come back to CP tomorrow, check out a dark green piece way back on the right side- it has a very unique shape (like a tree shape!) and I think those types of acro used to turn out to be blue. I wanted it but no more space -have to get rid of something first! The blue (in your other thread pics) and the lilac pieces are pretty nice too.

 

[Guest]

I cant wait for my elseyi to grow out!!

 

[Guest]

Naka, I have Tyree's LE A. insignis and this doesn't look like the first pic to me very much. I also have Patrick Monaghan's A. elseyii before he went out of business and this particular acropora doesn't seem to be like either one of those pics. I trust Patrick's id and I sure know Tyree knows what he's calling it.

Who knows......

 

[t0mmy108]

says in Veron's book, the Insignis has "White branches with contrasting coloured radial corallites. This colour pattern is useful for identification." The Selago tends to grow more like a table. Elseyi grows like a botlebrush and has more corallites with varying sizes. they all are so similar. I have a small branch that rtn'd. It looks like Elseyi. Anyone concur?

 

[Guest]

Tom thats definitely not a selago. I can spot a selago from a mile away. A selago has scaly coralites.

I also have to agree with SueT. There something about it thats not id'n with the elseyi on the first one. I think its the thick branches and thicker coralites. Give it some time for it to grow out and then we can surely tell what it resembles.

 

[jamesw]

Hmm. Acropora in aquaria take on different growth forms than they do in the wild, due to different current conditions, lighting, etc.

That means that waiting for it to grow out a bit will make it even more unlikely (not that you really have a chance without a skeleton to examine under a microscope) that you will be able to ID an acro to the species level.

Cheers
James

 

[t0mmy108]

true...to a certain degree. Water current can affect the the thickness of branches, calcium levels effect density and growth rate, lighting can effect growth and color, etc., etc.. But the overall growth structure in general won't change so dramatically that you can mistake a millepora for an efflo. At least it can be narrowed down to maybe a couple on an educated guess. I've yet to see a staghorn grow into a bottlebrush or a table into a stag due to a closed system's conditions. Just IMHO.

 

[jamesw]

Actually, a lot of corals that look like staghorn growth forms turn into tabulate forms when they get bigger. Pretty crazy eh? It's amazing to see how the branches actually fuse together.

Cheers
James

 

[t0mmy108]

look on the bright side. If it grows really crazy and there's no other like it, we can make it a one and only of a kind and make it priceless.

 

[Guest]

James, the horse is dead, no matter how hard you beat it, you still aren't going to make it move another step.

But if your interested, I might have a brown something other, that should color up to a blue somthing other, and you might think it be worth some decent money, but well it will just be one of several Acropora something others in my tank. And looking at tommys pic, looks like he has a piece of skeleton he might be able to get, you got the microscope and the ablity to look at the skeleton with your educated mind and be able to tell what it is?

And just out of curiosity, are we going to accuse Eric of defouling some of the beautiful corals he has pictured in his book, by breaking off those acros that he did identify? Or we saying he was sloppy? Yes please ask him for me, I would like to know the answer of that one, since you have thrown his name in to the converstation at other times.

 

[jamesw]

Isn't the digital age great though. Rather than say something like that - that you don't feel comfortable with - you can just take a photo of your eye-popping Acropora whateveritisensis and send it to me or imbed the picture in the post. I don't know if it sounds as cool as "neon green Acro tenuis" but hey, a picture is worth a thousand words, right?

Cheers
James

 

[Guest]

Narkon- I would say a photo is a better way of communicating then saying a latin name that might not be rock solid or could mislead someone.I understand your point but look at this thread so far.Everyone is disagreeing on what is what and frankly none of us are taxonimist.I think you are getting to worked up.Some corals are quite distinct but the vast majority have similar traits that make it hard to distinguish.This is my opinion and has been my experience and i have personally handled 10's of thousands of corals.Look at the thread about the cynarina vs scolymia and you can see that even seasoned people can mislable a coral based on visual appearance.Yes Eric B. did put pics of acro with names in his book but it was intended to just show different types of coral, not to be used as a taxonomic guide book like Verons book. Corals do change in the captive enviroment, and yes in some of the best tanks they grow very similar if not exactly the same but this is not the case in most hobbyist aquariums and i hear and see these same people trying to positively id a coral that has changed significantly.Not to mention corals change growth forms from more than just light,flow,and calcium.What about toxins from competing corals?What about nutrition?What about problems with salt?The vast majority of the critics probably have never even dropped in on a reef to see this coral for themself!And they soley base their opinion from a book with a couple of photos of the species of interest.I know James has seen most if not all of the coral in the flesh and he still does not dare slapping a name on something in haste and i applaud him for it.

 

[t0mmy108]

James, let me know the next time you go down to the Flower Gardens. I'd like to tag along and maybe catch some hammerheads spawning. We still need to bring back 100 gallons of NSW remember?

 

[Guest]

nathan, nathan, nathan... always causing up a storm! jk

I think what reefsavers is trying to say is what this coral has done to me. The first pic is a pic of 2 days ago and the 2nd pic is how i got it in the first day. Doesnt even look like the same coral does it?

This was a frag that grew out from the colony i chopped up after I got it in RTN from Fish World.

 

[t0mmy108]

Doh!!

8O 8O I had two of my pieces pull the same crap on me the other day. They've been looking like this for the past two days. Should I start chopping them up or let it sit? this is more like STN. what to do? To frag or not to frag?? It all started when I took all the sand and macro out of the fuge. That also made it a 55 gallon water change. I also sucked out an inch of sand in the main tank...don't tell me I messed up!

This is how the stag used to look

 

[Guest]

Tommy, I'd do something before you loose both pieces. When the sand bed is disturbed stuff like this usually does happen.

You might can do some patch work with some glue gel. If that doesn't stop it you may need to go to fragging.