Interesting Montipora

[Anonymous]

Check out this cool monti I got recently. Actually, I'm just guessing, not sure what it is.

 

[Anonymous]

Looks like monti to me too. A LFS had a very similar looking piece, and he was very sure it was "Acropora vietnamensis" Not even sure if this is a real species, but that's what it looked like. Very cool, in any case.

 

[Anonymous]

Think he just had is genus wrong. Here is M. vietamensis from reefaholics page:

Still don't know if thats correct, but reefaholics is calling it that. He states that it is common, but I hadn't seen one before. Hard to tell from the pic; I guess it is encrusting or mounding.

 

[Anonymous]

Looks exactly like what I saw. I'm 99% sure it's NOT an Acropora species, but that's what the silly LFS store boys were calling it. The piece I saw had a very similar branching pattern to M. digitata.

 

[Anonymous]

It is relatively easy to tell Acropora and Montipora apart, but to distinguish among the species is a different story.

Acropora has specialized axial (terminal) coralite, while all polyps on a Montipora is alike, even the one on the tips.

 

[Twinspot99]

It looks like one the frags I'd traded to John G. a couple years back. Mine is a montipora and grows quite fast under high light.