Quote:
Originally posted by 512148048
...i did look up alot of corallimorphs and nothing seemed to be even close in coloration. so any other ideas maby one of the giant shrooms not shure on family...
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well...
Don't use the coloration as the primary means of making the ID of the corallimorphs. ID by genus and specie will be based on morphological characteristics rather than color. To make matters worse, there is a lot of info coming out of DNA mapping for these creatures that suggests that they are not nearly as different as we originally thought they are, such that there may only be a few genera (two, maybe three), and that there is much variation even within closely related species (to the point that possibly there are not as many species as were previously thought, maybe just a lot of color variants of species).
Taxonomy (naming) of these coral creatures has been in flux now for about 4 years or more, such that there isn't nearly the clear cut key for many species of corallimorphs, zoanthids, many of the octocorals in general, and varying levels of change with many other families of corals. Prolly best to either find someone willing to look at the structures with a scope and try to delineate the fine structure necessary to ID them, or accept close id with the gross morphology as a "most likely" ID. Really accurate ID at this point and level of taxonomy usually means either a sample for DNA analysis, or possibly sacrificing a specimen to determine internal morphology as well as the external features.
Then again, for the $120 sample, you might as well send it to the
Walnut Grove Seaquarium, where the curator there can give you a better idea of what you have.
If your concerned about the care and location of a specimen in the aquarium, just plan on a night nutrient tank with slow to medium-slow laminar current and strong, indirect lighting. This is true for almost all corallimorphs, as for the most part these are the conditions they are acquired from. There are a (very) few specimens that prefer strong direct lighting, but almost all of them will do with the strong to moderate indirect lighting afforded by either PC or VHO lighting, and they almost all do better without MH lighting. Nitrates in the 10 to 20 PPM range seem to stimulate growth as does some level of dissolved organic materials in the water column, or, a dirty" tank just bordering on a cyano bloom. Their original biotope for thriving is in opposition to the biotope of
Acroporiids and related reef top stony corals.
HTH, don't sweat the details on the ID, just tell folks you have a "(genus) striped
hairy mushroom..."
...and post some good, high resolution pix with some scale and good lighting.
thanks for the info sooooooooo...
