Anyone want to take a stab at ID'ing this "Silver Xenia

[Anonymous]

Picked this up last week through Extreme Corals, being sold simply as "Silver Xenia." The photos (shots from the dealer's web site) don't even remotely do it justice... the rock looks like it's covered in a solid, fluffy wheat field of short-stalked xenia polyps.

Quite honestly, it's an absolute stunner that I hope spreads like mad in my tank

But I've got no idea what it really is. It's not quite xenia, not quite anthelia... anybody got a guess?

 

[Anonymous]

Shrug. Dunno. Without consulting a book I'd say it looks almost like a Clavularia sp. :? I think it's safe to say it's not a Xenia sp.

 

[Unarce]

I second the Clavularia ID The price you paid is equivalent to Clove Polyps, too. :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Let's see a photo of the bases of the polyps

 

[Anonymous]

Positively 100% NOT clavularia. Polyps are much smaller, no non-retractable stalk when they close, no creepers being sent out of crowded spots. Not that I have anything against clavularia, seeing as I've got two different varieties just inches away from this stuff

I'll try to post a shot of'em in my tank later, give a better representation.

 

[Anonymous]

Spent about half an hour last night trying to get a decent shot to show polyps and base detail and came up with crap I'm afraid. My camera skills and/or camera suck. Might try again tonight, and my girlfriend has plans to shoot some video footage but for now, here's a description.

Each individual polyp appears to be free standing, no mat or even ribbon between polyps that I could detect. When polyps retract they do so completely, leaving only an extremely tiny rounded bump on the rock. Polyp size is also very small, perhaps half the size of a typical green star polyp. I'd think all that should pretty much rule out clavularia, no?

The photos posted above from the dealer's web site show the polyps, arms and pinnules as looking very thin and stringy. This is not how it looks in my tank, where they are on the contrary very lush and feathery. An exact replica of a xenia or anthelia polyp in miniature, in fact. The arms curve inward when extended, with the polyp forming the typical "bell" appearance associated with xenia or anthelia.

Anyone recommend a good non-hobby photo atlas on soft corals?

 

[Anonymous]

Is this what you have?

http://www.corallibrary.info/showphoto. ... 43&cat=531

 

[Anonymous]

I don't think so, Crissy. It's hard to judge from the photo, but the polyps there look much larger and a bit different, structure wise.

Oddly enough a piece of my stuff seems to have shown up in LiveAquaria's Diver's Den tonight. They're calling it anthelia, for what that might be worth. Here's their photo of the one they've got; it's not quite got the "fully open and expanded" look of mine, but it's much closer than was shown in the photos from Extreme Corals.

 

[Anonymous]

Each individual polyp appears to be free standing, no mat or even ribbon between polyps that I could detect. When polyps retract they do so completely, leaving only an extremely tiny rounded bump on the rock. Polyp size is also very small, perhaps half the size of a typical green star polyp. I'd think all that should pretty much rule out clavularia, no?

With that being said, I doubt it's anthelia. Anthelia forms a mat between polyps, or masses like xenia.

Sansibia or Cervera would be my guess.

 

[Anonymous]

But they have some connecting tissue as well.

 

[Anonymous]

http://www.poppe-images.com/images/imag ... cid=924850

http://www.poppe-images.com/images/imag ... cid=924851

http://www.nano-reef.com/gallery/showph ... user=15363

 

[Anonymous]

With that being said, I doubt it's anthelia. Anthelia forms a mat between polyps, or masses like xenia.

Sansibia or Cervera would be my guess.

Yeah, I don't think it's anthelia either. Like I said in the beginning, it doesn't quite match up to xenia, anthelia or anything else I'm familiar with.

Those sansibia photos are definitely the closest match I've seen yet. You mention they do the connecting-tissue thing, but I can't really see from those photos. What kind of structure do they form?

Thanks Gresh!

 

[Anonymous]

Unfortunatly, I can't find much onnthe connecting tissue. IIRC, one that I've seen, had a fine web like connecting tissue. Fabrice mentions a bit about it in her book, but not enough for me to say what it looks like I have an email out that may get us the answer though

 

[Anonymous]

Appreciate it, Gresham.

 

[goodguyreefer321]

It looks like a coral we have here called blue octocoral but it comes in different colors as well. Here's a link to check it out.
http://www.marinelifephotography.com/ma ... corals.htm

 

[Anonymous]

Interesting. Running some searches turned up the following, too...

"Replace Anthelia edmondsoni with Sarcothelia edmondsoni. The genus of this little coral has been changed several times in the last few years, from Anthelia to Sansibia and finally to Sarcothelia."

That's from a listing of changes made to the revised edition of 'Hawaii's Sea Creatures' by John Hoover.

 

[Anonymous]

My latest softy book was pritned in 2001, so your probably right

 

[Anonymous]

Whatever it is, I do like the look of it.

 

[Anonymous]

Me too I keep staring at it in the evenings and willing it to multiply. Here's hoping it will spread quickly - not only would I love the look of lots of it in my tank, I'd really like to be able to start spreading frags of it around.

 

[Anonymous]

Another piece showed up tonight on Drs F&S divers den. This time they're calling it sansibia.