Show me your Favias!

Wasabiroot · Feb 18, 2023

encrustingacro said:
First of all, there is no such thing as a bowerbanki acan or a bowerbanki Favia. Bowerbanki is a species of coral from the genus Homophyllia.

WoRMS - World Register of Marine Species - Homophyllia bowerbanki (Milne Edwards & Haime, 1857)

www.marinespecies.org

Second of all, you shouldn’t always trust seller/import IDs as they get things wrong all the time. Third of all, bowerbankis have larger (max 20mm) and more irregular corallites while acans have smaller (max 10mm) and more circular corallites, like your coral.

Yeah, that's why in my original post I said acan/homophyllia bowerbanki - some people don't keep up with the reclassification and so i mentioned both in case ... Kind of like "acan lords" vs Micromussa.

Best and most conclusive way for coral is looking at the skeleton

Wasabiroot · Feb 18, 2023

Here is a dirt cheap freebie I picked up. It seems to like the spot

fishgirljockey · Feb 18, 2023

Waters said:
I have actually only had this one for a couple of months.

That's crazy lol looks amazing

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · Feb 18, 2023

Tcook said:
We all go by common names in the hobby like euphyllia and acan lords. It’s good that the new taxonomy is pointed out. Eventually it will stick

Yes, I know. And I often correct people when they call frogspawn euphyllia... But it's not necessary to get all man-splainy every single time, when sometimes all someone is looking for is how to care for the coral

Solga · Feb 18, 2023

Been told, in the past, it's a type of favia. Was also corrected once, and told it is actually a goniastrea (sp?). Either way, here is my dragon soul...

encrustingacro · Feb 18, 2023

Wasabiroot said:
Yeah, that's why in my original post I said acan/homophyllia bowerbanki - some people don't keep up with the reclassification and so i mentioned both in case ... Kind of like "acan lords" vs Micromussa.

Best and most conclusive way for coral is looking at the skeleton

Skeletal analysis is not necessarily the best way to classify/identify corals, as doing so can leave out potentially important details such as how the flesh/mantles/tentacles look, locality, or spawning behavior. Using skeletal analysis is how we got Acanthastrea pachysepta classified as Lobophyllia, frogspawns and hammers classified as Euphyllia, and various unrelated corals classified in the family Faviidae. There are also a few instances where two coral species have nearly identical skeletons but have other characteristics that separate them. One example of this is hammers and frogspawns, which have basically identical skeletons and were once classified as a single species (Euphyllia fimbriata), but have separate, distinct tentacle morphologies. Another example is Coelastrea aspera and C. incrustans, which also have identical skeletons, but differ in spawning behavior and times. The best way to identify/classify corals is through genetic/molecular analysis, as it is much less susceptible to mistakes due to convergent evolution or not looking at all characteristics, and better at finding cryptic species.

Wasabiroot · Feb 18, 2023

encrustingacro said:
Skeletal analysis is not necessarily the best way to classify/identify corals, as doing so can leave out potentially important details such as how the flesh/mantles/tentacles look, locality, or spawning behavior. Using skeletal analysis is how we got Acanthastrea pachysepta classified as Lobophyllia, frogspawns and hammers classified as Euphyllia, and various unrelated corals classified in the family Faviidae. There are also a few instances where two coral species have nearly identical skeletons but have other characteristics that separate them. One example of this is hammers and frogspawns, which have basically identical skeletons and were once classified as a single species (Euphyllia fimbriata), but have separate, distinct tentacle morphologies. Another example is Coelastrea aspera and C. incrustans, which also have identical skeletons, but differ in spawning behavior and times. The best way to identify/classify corals is through genetic/molecular analysis, as it is much less susceptible to mistakes due to convergent evolution or not looking at all characteristics, and better at finding cryptic species.

All good points. Seeing as genetic or molecular anaylsis is out of the reach of most hobbyists, I thought skeleton morphology would be a safe bet to mention (esp for Acropora) but...in any event, I hope we haven't beat a dead horse too much here. If you have any "favia"/etc to show we'd love to see! Thanks for the information

Tcook · Feb 18, 2023

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal said:
Yes, I know. And I often correct people when they call frogspawn euphyllia... But it's not necessary to get all man-splainy every single time, when sometimes all someone is looking for is how to care for the coral

Agreed. The man-splaining is a bit tedious.

NanoBoxes · Feb 21, 2023

fishgirljockey · Feb 22, 2023

NanoBoxes said:

Beautiful

uhgster1 · Feb 22, 2023

encrustingacro said:
First of all, there is no such thing as a bowerbanki acan or a bowerbanki Favia. Bowerbanki is a species of coral from the genus Homophyllia.

WoRMS - World Register of Marine Species - Homophyllia bowerbanki (Milne Edwards & Haime, 1857)

www.marinespecies.org

Second of all, you shouldn’t always trust seller/import IDs as they get things wrong all the time. Third of all, bowerbankis have larger (max 20mm) and more irregular corallites while acans have smaller (max 10mm) and more circular corallites, like your coral.

Im confused now! What do I have then?!

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · Feb 22, 2023

uhgster1 said:
Im confused now! What do I have then?!

What you have is a gorgeous tank!!

uhgster1 · Feb 22, 2023

Thanks

Jeffbear · Feb 22, 2023

This guy is becoming one of my favorite corals. I believe I bought it as a sour apple Favites. I'm not really sure what is is now that it's grown and has fluffy bits.