Coral ID

[ghoti]

I made a trip to my LFS yesterday and had a look at his new shipment of corals. He had a few nice pieces labeled as finger coral. It is a branching coral with a beige polyp at the end of each branch about 2 cm diameter. The base of the branches themselves glow green under actinic light. Any ideas as to what species this is and how hardy it is? I'd rather not rely on his info as he has quite a bit of goniopora in the shop and told me it is as hardy as they come. I have heard enough from you guys to know that is not the case.

TNX

[MiddletonMark]

Could it be Montipora Digitata?

Often called Velvet [generally] and for the Digitata called Velvet Finger?

It's a small polyp stony .... normally encrusting on the base, with a tan `tip' of new growth on new branches ... the rest should be covered in small little polyps that are extended in whatever color it is [orange, green most common, pink, purple, many others out there]. Sounds like maybe most of the polyps aren't out on the one you were looking at? I'd check into that ... as that's not a good sign IMO ... but I don't know everything either.

As for pics, check out:
http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/sh...ight=Montipora

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/sh...ight=Montipora

What kind of light/system do you have? They're pretty light loving, and do like a lot of flow ... but among the most tolerant that way for SPS corals.

Search on Montipora ... IME they're great SPS to start with. Less light-demanding as Acroporas, pretty fast growth with high calcium/alk levels, and quite pretty.

[ghoti]

Thanks Mangomark, but it's not Montipora. There is only one large polyp (2 cm) at the end of each stalk.

I have three actinic bulbs and one white.

[MiddletonMark]

Get Borneman's Aquarium corals book ... great ID book plus easily worth it in care information. Cheaper than most LFS single corals ... and if it saves you from one that's hard to keep ... or allows you to make one thrive ... worth it IMO.

Mine rides in my car to every coral purchase session ... actually rides in my car a lot of the time. A good one.

For just ID, Sprung's Coral: Quick ID guide [or something like that] is ok - but as it costs as much as Borneman's and doesn't have anywhere near the detail nor biology - not as good IMO. Lovely pics ... but Borneman's actually tells me information, not some `lighting needs: 2-9' which IMO isn't much information.