Unknown Coral

[MaximaLover!]

I Aquired an unknown Coral from a local reefer who wasn’t having much luck with it growing and i happily brought it home and it’s grown about double the size in the last 2 months. I was told it was found on a mixed rock from Australia. If anyone knows what it is for sure it would be a huge help but I’ve sent videos and pics to all the Pros and nobody knows for sure which is why I find it so interesting. A few of the common guesses is a BowerBanki or something that polyp ejected and survived.

 

[MaximaLover!]

I will post updated pics and videos tomorrow.

 

[MaximaLover!]

Here’s a video of the mystery coral Open and happy. The photos where it’s clearly smaller were take. Back in march when I received it.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Did a quick little scan and I'm stumped. Will look more when I can. Definitely want to know. Could be an unknown coral.

 

[alindell]

Dang that's cool. Never seen something like that

 

[Cali Reef Life]

I do not know not an expert but kinda look like these... Acanthastrea pachysepta or bowerbanki.

 

[alindell]

I do not know not an expert but kinda look like these... Acanthastrea pachysepta or bowerbanki.

Yah possibly in the same family

 

[sfin52]

They really remind me of a type of acan

 

[PharmrJohn]

I do not know not an expert but kinda look like these... Acanthastrea pachysepta or bowerbanki.

Yeah, no expert here; but Acan was my first guess.....

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

I keep looking at trumpet or lobo and others have said acan but it just doesn't look right for any of those that I have seen.

 

[PharmrJohn]

@VintageReefer --- Care to guess?

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Almost looks like certain favia but in an irregular pattern since they are small.

 

[VintageReefer]

It doesn’t have the typical growth pattern of an acan which is more of an encrusting and flat behavior. To be honest, I haven’t seen anything like it.

There are many corals that occasionally pop up for sale, but are not very common at all.

I’m going to bring in an expert @encrustingacro and @ISpeakForTheSeas
Any guesses ?

 

[MaximaLover!]

I sent videos of this closed and open to Chris meckley at ACI and he told me he would need to examine it under a scope but didn’t think it was a acan which is why I’m still hunting for an answer. Once it gets a little bigger I have no problem chopping it up and sending frags to people to examine.

 

[VintageReefer]

Sign me up for one when ready! I’m a lps collector, I love odd/unique lps corals

Where did your friend get it? I assume they didn’t dive in Australia and find it and bring it home

Is there more backstory to how they obtained it?

 

[encrustingacro]

It doesn't look like anything I've seen in the hobby. My best guess is that it's either some sort of severely deformed Merulinid, or it's a Montastraea cavernosa. How a Montastraea got into the hobby--I don't know. Maybe it was illegally collected or came on some maricultured rock, or it was given to a hobbyist by a scientist.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

I think you can corner the market on this coral. I would definitely be interested when you grow it out more.

 

[MaximaLover!]

Sign me up for one when ready! I’m a lps collector, I love odd/unique lps corals

Where did your friend get it? I assume they didn’t dive in Australia and find it and bring it home

Is there more backstory to how they

Sign me up for one when ready! I’m a lps collector, I love odd/unique lps corals

Where did your friend get it? I assume they didn’t dive in Australia and find it and bring it home

Is there more backstory to how they obtained it?

The most information I was given was this coral was found hitchhiking on a Colony rock of mushrooms from Australia. It was traded a few times before I was given the opportunity to take it and I jumped because I collect all types of acans including Bowers Lords Micromusa and echinata and this looks and spreads nothing like any of them so I knew it was special. I honestly don’t even think it cares for light honestly it’s just so special I’m letting it go because it’s growing pretty steadily.

 

[encrustingacro]

Now that I see this is from Australian live rock, I take back my Montastraea ID. My second best guess would be Diploastrea heliopora.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I’m going to bring in an expert @encrustingacro and @ISpeakForTheSeas
Any guesses ?

Haha, I'll defer to others like encrustingacro here - at the moment, I have to rely on relatively obvious, macroscopic details (admittedly, a lot of these are only obvious because of how much time I spend looking for differences like those between various critters) to differentiate corals; I still need to learn the finer points of coral morphology/anatomy and diagnostic criteria before I'll really be helpful for a lot of coral ID's.