Acanthastrea or Micromussa?

[LiquidSky]

Sold as Micromussa from store, just got it from a friend.

There are a few bare corallites in the back from dead polyps, when I try to measure they are all about 8mm when I measure across the longest side (since they are slightly oval).

Trying to figure out if it is a Micromussa or an Acanthastrea lordhowensis. Difficult since the Mircomussa has <8mm corallites and Acanthasrea more than 8mm.
Any other ways to determine which species it is? Anyone that can determine from just a photo?

 

[jaa1456]

Looks like an Acan but I don't think it is a lord acan

 

[LiquidSky]

Red Micromussas are more rare than Acanthastrea lordhowensis. Red micros often looks like small lords.

It was sold as an Australian Mircromussa.

But lets say its an Acanthastrea, if its not lordhowenis, which species do you believe then? Try to be a bit more specific, as it looks more like an lordhowensis than any other Acanthastrea species to my eyes.

 

[jaa1456]

I don't really know the specific names of the non Lord acans. How long has it been in the tank? I have 3 lord colonies and 4 different acans, which are not lords. I'm not 100% sure about this info but I was always told the lords will have those white lines straight through to the mouth and will not be those really large fluffy looking acans. Yet I have some with no lines and are not fluffy looking that are not lords.

 

[LiquidSky]

I got it yesterday evening, so it had just been in the tank for 5-6 hours. They are a bit more covering (continious) today.

 

[OGGISPORTS]

can you post any pic when it in the day a little longer and if it puff out and look at it at night time see how it looks when it opens mico have smaller ten then lord and dont not puff big . when micro do puff they dont have a big hole in the middle they are more tight and flat hope it helps

 

[LiquidSky]

A few nightpics, uplighted in PS so the shading and color is some out of balance..

totally closed

 

[LiquidSky]

No not all lords have lines that reach the center btw.

In Jen Verons ID books and the web I do see Micromussa amakusensis that puff with quite big holes in the middle also.

I hope its ok that I copy what I just wrote in another forum, have short of time atm.

COPY:
I got it as a gift from a friend since im coaching him, and the store is not in my country, so theres been much CITES paperwork to get the corals here, since we are not a part of the EU. I'll try to contact them if I dont find out which specie it is.
The coral is from a Acan and Scolymia/LPS specialized store/ importer that has mostly lps and rare fishes. So Im still wondering why they have decided that this is an Micromussa, and not an Acan amongst the many Acans they do have in stock at all times. But there may also be an error or misunderstanding that has happened, so im not after anyone. But I am very curious and a bit frustrated

I see several pics of variants of the specie Micromussa amakusensis that look quite like mine, with polyp-shape as acanthastrea but not in the same colour.
One of Jen Verons pics of the specie in "Corals of the World, vol 3 (Volum about Mussidae, Faviidae, Trachyphylliidae and Poritidae) and from image searches on the web.

One thing I also wonder about is that when the polyps close completely (like the polyps in the front of the coral in my last photo) they are very very flat and continous with the surface of the coral.
Any acan/micro experts here reading this?

And if it really is an Acanthastrea, have anyone seen this type before? which of the species (personally I only find lordhowensis that have polyps that looks quite similar)

Help is much appreciated, and thanks to you that already have contributed!

 

[grisha]

Hello,
interesting discussion which was brought up many times during Micromussa craze...
Awesome micros which start the interest in this coral was originally brought from Taiwan. Among em UFO, sniperSPS Micro, Miguels Angel eyes, pink lemonade ETC...
This corals was was different from Indo lords in there color pattern not to mention that polyp size. to compare Indo or Japanise lord polyp size to micro like comparing a quoter coin to a pencil eraser...at the times before Australian corals was closed for export this type of coral were the only available to us, though very rare and expensive ($50-$100 a polyp)...
When AU coral start sipping in to the US market micro heads noticed that some of the acanlords has smaller polyp sizes then usual Indo lords and some of the supposed micromussa has larger polyps then Taiwanise mics...discussion arose- How do we tell micro from lord in this case...after much heat and steam the general conclusion was,
If a colony and SHAPE of a polyp looks more like a micromussa then lord and size of a polyp is small enough to be a BIG POLYP micro then it is a micro. this is my understanding of the debate which went on a while ago...



In the picture above i see a smaller polyp lord from Australia...
If you taking a real interest in the matter...searsh for the thread on google or RC called "Show me your micromussa and i will show you mine.."

Now see if you can see the difference between the polyps on your picture and this few pictures from a while back

Taiwan stock

australia

i hope it helps and i would like Midol jabol Pnoy Alexpascado comment on my thoughts as well

 

[KathyC]

Thanks for taking a look at this thread Grisha, I know you know your micros!

Perhaps you can reach out to Jabol and ask him to take a look too? He isn't here as much as he used to be.

 

[grisha]

Man is building his house i heard...hard to get now

 

[LiquidSky]

Kathy and Grisha, thanks a lot.

You made it more clear to me Grisha with your good answer, I guess its not a bad solace that its an quite unusal lord acan. Even if a rare micro is even more expenisve, it is still looking good no matter which species it is.

And in this country (4,5 million ppl) those rare and most colourful chalice/acan/micro etc hypes never land, since they are usually not available. And when such hype specimens reach here and get more common, then you are already several hypes in front of us.

So here we dont have any fancy names on the corals, usually just the colour and the name of the species.
I have for instance just seen acanthastrea (any type) a few times in the domestic stores. And I promise you, this hobby is not cheaper in Norway. A normal medium sized Euphyllia costs like 150-200 USD, and in the more expensive stores 250-300.
The rest of Scandinavia (execpt Island) are members of EU, so they dont have to reimport and apply for new papers (CITES), since they allready have papers for EU.
Enough about that, I guess my point is that any new specie or variants of species that arrive to the country, is good to the hobby here since they usually spread in the community.

Again thanks!

 

[KathyC]

Happy we could be of help I knew a message to Grisha would yield good info on these corals.

You seem like the type of reefer that will make sure that interesting & unusual corals will be spread to your reefing peers - good for you!


Nice to have you posting here, and I must say - I love your screen name

 

[jabol]

Ha ha That was a good one Grisha. I am just at the end of a very busy season, so I do not have a lot of time.

In my opinion, this is an acan. I used to own acans like this before. HTH.

Man is building his house i heard...hard to get now

 

[DEL]

hey liquid..whatever it is..its real nice!! can i have a frag?? hehehe..i gave up on names alredy..if its nice..ill buy it!!

 

[grisha]

wow didnt realize you from Oslo...It is interesting to see the pattern corals spread through the hobby worldwide...
It was a big deal in US when aussie corals got permission from CITEs.
Witold im glad you around, will you be at the swap?

 

[LiquidSky]

Thanks KathyC

Having your opinion Jabol, Im quite sure its an acan. Cheers! :groupflip

The name is "Red liquidsky" mwahaha sounds cool enough to me.. Just give me a call when you are half an hour from Oslo.

I thought you had figured out Grisha, with my primitive English. To be at the MR swap would have been like a dream, but its far away.. Maybe in the future, but not sure if I can bring anything from the swaps, I would rather have to buy from a store which can give me CITES documents.
The fine/ticket for bringing in stony corals or clams without documents starts at about 10.000 NOK which is 1700-1800 USD from what I have heard. And I also respect CITES and wildlife distribution laws, as they are important for protection of endangered species.

Better get back to the books, exam coming up monday..