Tubastrea or Dendro?

[Anonymous]

Is it possible to differentiate dendro from tubastrea visually? My friend got this piece in a shipment and we're not sure if it's a dendro and he doesn't want to sell it to me as the wrong thing. The polyps are about 3/4" and from the pics I've seen dendro have paler white/yellow, bone-like polyps versus the brighter orange/yellow fleshy polyps of tubastrea. What say you? Sorry I don't have any other pics...

 

[Anonymous]

Dendronephthya doesn't look like that at all, that's a species of Tubastria

Regards,
David Mohr

 

[Anonymous]

How do you mean "doesn't look like that"? Can you tell me the morphological features that allow you to tell them apart?

 

[Anonymous]

To put it simply Tubastria are called cup corals (hence your picture, see the cups containing polyps)? Dendronephthya have upright stalks with branches that have groups of ball shaped polyps at the ends. If you want me to get technical and post a three page dissertation on the differences I can, but it's almost my bed time.

Regards,
David Mohr

 

[Anonymous]

Dude, Dendronephthya is a soft coral...have you been drinking? :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

I think maybe apex made a typo...did you mean Balanophyllia or something?

 

[Anonymous]

Well, that goes a bit beyond a typo. He certainly meant something else and has his genera all mixed up and ass backwards.
Hey, Is it possible to tell the difference between Queensland grouper and a Flame angel visually?

 

[Anonymous]

If a noob looks at this thread they might think we treat all 'brain farts' like this. We don't! just for people we know, and we know they should know better!

B

 

[Anonymous]

Alright jackarses: It's DENDROPHYLLIA. No typo or brain fart here and my ass is on perfectly straight, JimM.

 

[Anonymous]

Forget it. Most sites say they're impossible to distinguish from Tubastrea without analysis of skeletal septal fusion. Thank for all your help guys... :roll:

 

[Anonymous]

Hey, how about that. Genus Dendrophyllia, Family Dendrophyllidae...includes, among others, the genera Duncanopsammina, Tubastraea and Turbinaria.

Removes foot from mouth...

 

[Anonymous]

Looks like at least some species have orange bases. It does look exactly like Tubastraea.

 

[Anonymous]

Alright jackarses: It's DENDROPHYLLIA. No typo or brain fart here and my ass is on perfectly straight, JimM.

:lol:
Type the whole genus next time. :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Yes SIR. :roll:

 

[Anonymous]

Size of the polyps are a dead giveaway. My dendrophyllia has one 1.5" wide polyp. No sun polyp gets that big. There is also a difference in the polyp opacity, I've observed. The dendros are more translucent.

Hope this helps.

Peace,

Chip

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Chip. I got a small frag today with one polyp on it. It hasn't opened yet so I don't know if the polyps are translucent, but I can't see that there's much difference in polyp size from my sun coral. It came from the edge of the colony, so maybe it's a baby and will grow, but my inclination now is that it's probably tubastrea.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes SIR. :roll:

Hey, can I mix a Crypto with a Chaeto? Can you tell the difference between a Ptera and a Psuedo? :roll:
See what I mean - Pffff!

 

[Anonymous]

Whatever man... I obviously didn't realize there was any ambiguity in the name or I would have written it out. You don't tell people to say zoanthid instead of zoa or zoo because there's some widely acceptable abbreviations that most people understand. On every other board they call it "dendro", so that's what I used.

The point is, you don't have to be a dick and make fun of someone or imply they're stupid because they made a mistake or asked a bad question. Especially, when you didn't know enough to link "dendro" to something that looks like tubastrea in the first place. Obviously, you don't subscribe to the "no stupid questions" manta.

 

[Anonymous]

Hey, don't get your panties in a bunch. :lol:
Seriously, I need to know about the Ptera and a Psuedo.

 

[Anonymous]

You don't know the difference between a flying dinosaur and incorrect spelling? BWAHAHA!!!!!!