interesting coral ID. micro micromussa/blasto?

[tosiek]

Thought i would share pics of a cool coral ive never seen before, as well as looking for an ID on it if anyone has before.

Came as a hitchhicker with these zoa's i got. I actually bought them because of this coral.

They are about 1/16-1/8", you can see the comparison to the grains of sand.

Its shaped just like an acan/blasto/micromussa except it has feeler tentacles as part of its outer doughnut ring like a blasto. If needed i can send a picture of the skeletal structure too but its just like a blasto/acan/micromussa. They are brown/green outside with an ice blue/baby blue center. I was fragging off the zoa's today to separate the two and broke off a small piece from the larger big piece i have.

 

[nanoreefer22]

Dibs!

Nice piece, wish I knew what it was. They almost look like mini-torches.

 

[tosiek]

Somewhat better pic, sorry can;t take any better ones, its too small and my camera isn;t good enough.

 

[PhoenixOne]

I have the same thing growing on one of my rocks. I brought the rock about 1 1/2 years ago and it showed up as a spec and is slowly covering the rock. Sorry for the pic, I took it from the top looking down. The camera had a hard time focusing because of the water and couldn't get a better close up. But it's the same as what you have in your tank. I couldn't get an ID since I saw it. The tentacles retract when touched. Any ideas what it is?

 

[JasonE]

Tony, looks like Leptastrea.... Maybe

 

[PhoenixOne]

Tony, looks like Leptastrea.... Maybe

Looks like that's what it is. Did a google and saw different colored ones including the ones we have in our tanks. It's possible.

 

[House of Laughter]

I was going to say favites

House

 

[tosiek]

Faviidea was close enough for me =0) Thanks Jason and Jim =0) Real close to 3 of the Leptastea's.

Quick question though, what differentiates the faviidea and Mussidae families roughly? individual organisms per polyp vs colonial polyps? Or more based on the skeletal structure growth and separation ebtween the two.

 

[Deanos]

Tony, looks like Leptastrea.... Maybe

Leptastrea pruinosa :scratch: