What Coral is this!?

[rami.almo]

My friend gave me this rock with polyps but I’m trying to figure out the exact species or name. It looks like zoas but someone told me it can be galaxea not quite sure. If you know please let me know! I’ll attach pictures below

 

[Ben.QLD2]

Possibly cyphastrea.

 

[Lavey29]

Possibly cyphastrea.

Or leptastrea

 

[rami.almo]

Or leptastrea

Thank you for your input, this one does look quite similar to a leptastrea

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Almost definitely not cyphastrea

 

[Raphael Dalmeida]

It does look like galaxea or leptastrea or (something In Faviidae or Oculinidae family of corals).

Have in mind that some can be extremely aggressive, if you see super long reaching sweeper tentacles it's most likely galaxea.

Make sure to place it far from other corals until you ID it.

 

[rami.almo]

It does look like galaxea or leptastrea or (something In Faviidae or Oculinidae family of corals).

Have in mind that some can be extremely aggressive, if you see super long reaching sweeper tentacles it's most likely galaxea.

Make sure to place it far from other corals until you ID it.

Ahh okay thank you for your info! I’ll make sure to keep an eye out for that

 

[rami.almo]

I added additional pics here to show how it looks when closed up in regular light

 

[encrustingacro]

It does look like galaxea or leptastrea or (something In Faviidae or Oculinidae family of corals).

Have in mind that some can be extremely aggressive, if you see super long reaching sweeper tentacles it's most likely galaxea.

Make sure to place it far from other corals until you ID it.

Faviidae is an Atlantic only family, and Oculinidae doesn’t contain any corals that you would usually see in the hobby. Leptastrea is in its own family, and Galaxea is grouped with the euphylliids.

My friend gave me this rock with polyps but I’m trying to figure out the exact species or name. It looks like zoas but someone told me it can be galaxea not quite sure. If you know please let me know! I’ll attach pictures below View attachment 3089337 View attachment 3089338 View attachment 3089339

Can you ask your friend the collection locality? It almost looks like an Atlantic Montastraea, which are illegal to collect or sell.

 

[Raphael Dalmeida]

Faviidae is an Atlantic only family, and Oculinidae doesn’t contain any corals that you would usually see in the hobby. Leptastrea is in its own family, and Galaxea is grouped with the euphylliids.


Can you ask your friend the collection locality? It almost looks like an Atlantic Montastraea, which are illegal to collect or sell.

Literature must have changed, leptastrea used to be in Faviidae, and galaxea on Oculinidae.

Anyway, it does look like montastrea as you mentioned, could also be galaxea. It'd be good to have a photo when polyps are retracted as well.

 

[rami.almo]

Faviidae is an Atlantic only family, and Oculinidae doesn’t contain any corals that you would usually see in the hobby. Leptastrea is in its own family, and Galaxea is grouped with the euphylliids.


Can you ask your friend the collection locality? It almost looks like an Atlantic Montastraea, which are illegal to collect or sell.

Oh wow thank you this info is super helpful, he said it’s from the Atlantic and that some guy gave it to him in Florida not sure from where, I have a 5gallon nano reef tank and am worried putting this in there if it could be galaxea as I hear they are extremely aggressive with sweeper tentacles. Are these tentacles visible to the eye as I haven’t seen them yet. But it can also be montastraea as it’s from the Atlantic and I think those are also very aggressive.

 

[encrustingacro]

Oh wow thank you this info is super helpful, he said it’s from the Atlantic and that some guy gave it to him in Florida not sure from where, I have a 5gallon nano reef tank and am worried putting this in there if it could be galaxea as I hear they are extremely aggressive with sweeper tentacles. Are these tentacles visible to the eye as I haven’t seen them yet. But it can also be montastraea as it’s from the Atlantic and I think those are also very aggressive.

If it's from the Atlantic, then it's Montastraea. Galaxea only occurs in the Indo-Pacific. Also, I'm pretty sure it's illegal to have Atlantic stony corals. I'm not sure whether Montastraea are agressive or not, as they are seldom seen in the hobby. From what I have seen with their open polyps, they are probably not aggressive, as I don't see any sweeper tentacles.