All Delight
New member
Got this from Frag Farmer, it was tagged Acan Maxima
acan maxima
- Thread starter treefer
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Hormigaquatica
Active member
Here is a pic of an old Favia of mine. Drew an arrow pointing to a polyp that has a second mouth and is developing a wall between them.
gastone
Member
... and unless you've been to Oman recently and done some diving, you still haven't
Follow this link to Acanthastrea Maxima:
http://www.bishopmuseum.org/research/pbs/Oman-coral-book/Index/CorBkIndex.htm
Garrett.
zeppelin
www.corareef.org
Here's more info:
http://www2.aims.gov.au/coralsearch/html/901-1000/Species pages/911.htm
Only known to be grey, green, or brown, and only found in Omen waters where collection is illegal.
Very doubtful you have a maxima. Many wholesalers and retailers alike are trying to pass colorful scolys, and lobos as maxima when it just isn't so.
http://www2.aims.gov.au/coralsearch/html/901-1000/Species pages/911.htm
Only known to be grey, green, or brown, and only found in Omen waters where collection is illegal.
Very doubtful you have a maxima. Many wholesalers and retailers alike are trying to pass colorful scolys, and lobos as maxima when it just isn't so.
thank you so much HOrmi... i know the call is gonna work ... now is that how the colony reproduce or it is just happened few times?
on acan maxima....well, why dont we ask a REAL coral morphologist , who is getting payed buy some university to identify a couple pictures we have ..? i mean , when there is a corals in the trade found on retail website for couple hundred bucks they gotta have some answer for there $70-90 grand a year right ?
on acan maxima....well, why dont we ask a REAL coral morphologist , who is getting payed buy some university to identify a couple pictures we have ..? i mean , when there is a corals in the trade found on retail website for couple hundred bucks they gotta have some answer for there $70-90 grand a year right ?
gastone
Member
Looking at a few pics of fleshy polyps wouldn't be very scientific IMO. Zep posted THE site that we as hobbyists have at our disposal to aid in coral identification. At best it's a crapshoot. But in this case there isn't a controvery. Acanthastrea Maxima exist in Oman... period. The king of Oman doesn't allow exporting. If by chance some black market smuggler decided to give it a go (sure, it could happen), the price of a specimen would not be 200-400 dollars. I would vaguely guess that somewhere in the 20-25000 dollar range would be more appropriate.
That last part is just pure speculation on my part.
Garrett.
i do agree but why is so many vendors and exporters keep trying to pass it to us as A M? and this vendors is the guys we all know very well .....i do agree that the pic i posted is not an easy ID case but all i was asking is may be some one goes to school where they have a profi known for his scientific work in this area of biology ?
so many corals for sale without ID makes this maxima thingy
so many corals for sale without ID makes this maxima thingy
gastone
Member
Grisha, all come down to money IMO. Take anything and apply a label (maxima, LE, tyree, whatever). Dictate price. People will pay as they believe they are getting something unusual, desirable, whatever the appropriate adjective is. What could be a common lobo or scoly, sounds so much more appealing (hence profitable) when labeled as a maxima.
just my opinion.
Garrett.
just my opinion.
Garrett.
Justin74
New member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11761771#post11761771 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gastone
... and unless you've been to Oman recently and done some diving, you still haven't
Follow this link to Acanthastrea Maxima:
http://www.bishopmuseum.org/research/pbs/Oman-coral-book/Index/CorBkIndex.htm
Garrett.
WELL SAID!!:lol:
I was hoping someone would shed some light on all these "acan maxima" sightings!! Youd think the damn thing was Elvis or something :lol2:
You believe everything from the LFS and wholesellers like you should believe everything from Fox News people, Im mean c'mon
Since when did they make the great leap from calling everything pineapple corals 5 years ago to being able to make a true scientific identification down to the specie level? The well respected Authors on the subject(Borneman, Calfo) and other respected figures in the reefing community would not be so bold! Let alone J.E.N. Veron, being pretty much the most authorotative taxonomist on the subject pretty much spelling out ( and debunking all these ghost sightings) what it looks like and where it can be found. Then as gastone mentioned, it aint happenin in Oman waters -Justin
Meisen
Premium Member
I respect Vernon's amazing body of work (COTW is amazing!).
Knowing a species to occur from one area doesnt preclude finding it in another. Especially with animals such as corals which can potentially have some fairly decent dispersal rates. Range maps are pretty much the least accurate thing you can read in a book IME anyway though they are more often overstated than under. Having worked for multiple LFS I saw crazy stuff come in all the time, often as incidentals but sometimes just totally mislabeled. It is possible but probably not.
That said, its pretty predictable that coral sellers would jump on the maxima bandwagon....Why not call anything that looks vaguely maxima-like a maxima and tack on a additional 200 bucks premium?
From what I have seen in the various literature, true maximas clearly have a much fleshier polyp (in distance that it extends beyond the coralite vertically) than the scolys or symphyllias do. Scolys and Symphyllias can extend way beyond the coralite horizontally
Knowing a species to occur from one area doesnt preclude finding it in another. Especially with animals such as corals which can potentially have some fairly decent dispersal rates. Range maps are pretty much the least accurate thing you can read in a book IME anyway though they are more often overstated than under. Having worked for multiple LFS I saw crazy stuff come in all the time, often as incidentals but sometimes just totally mislabeled. It is possible but probably not.
That said, its pretty predictable that coral sellers would jump on the maxima bandwagon....Why not call anything that looks vaguely maxima-like a maxima and tack on a additional 200 bucks premium?
From what I have seen in the various literature, true maximas clearly have a much fleshier polyp (in distance that it extends beyond the coralite vertically) than the scolys or symphyllias do. Scolys and Symphyllias can extend way beyond the coralite horizontally
I agree with ^^^^^
While some things may be endemic to one area, there is no physical fence keeping stuff in unless that area has some wild currents that only run around the area in a circle.
Take the Yellow tang for example. Once thought to be endemic to the Hawaiian islands. Rarely found outside of the islands yet every so often one can be found in the Revillagigedo Islands off of Mexico, in the Marshall Islands and even the Ryukyu Islands. Stuff can travel, it knows no boarders Just because science has not found it elsewhere does not mean it isn't there. They say a lot of coral species aren't found in Tonga if you read the books, but having imported a ton of stuff from there myself I can say the books were wrong in a bunch of cases.
While some things may be endemic to one area, there is no physical fence keeping stuff in unless that area has some wild currents that only run around the area in a circle.
Take the Yellow tang for example. Once thought to be endemic to the Hawaiian islands. Rarely found outside of the islands yet every so often one can be found in the Revillagigedo Islands off of Mexico, in the Marshall Islands and even the Ryukyu Islands. Stuff can travel, it knows no boarders
Just because science has not found it elsewhere does not mean it isn't there. They say a lot of coral species aren't found in Tonga if you read the books, but having imported a ton of stuff from there myself I can say the books were wrong in a bunch of cases.
sufunk
New member
I have the EXACT same coral as Grisha posted. We have discussed it before with no resolution. Mine, like Grisha's, was sold to me as a Maxima but at a very decent price.
<a href="http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g89/sufunk/?action=view¤t=maxima20001.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g89/sufunk/maxima20001.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
What it is, i'm not sure. Everyone is positive that there are no maxima's around but then what do Grisha and I have??? I dont know squat about the economy of Oman but i am pretty sure that even $50 american is ALOT of money to the average person there. I'd be very surprised if zero maxima's are being collected and exported.
Not saying that they are Maxima's, i really have no idea but i think it is a little funny that everyone is positive they are not maxima's but have no idea what they actually are.
<a href="http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g89/sufunk/?action=view¤t=maxima20001.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g89/sufunk/maxima20001.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
What it is, i'm not sure. Everyone is positive that there are no maxima's around but then what do Grisha and I have??? I dont know squat about the economy of Oman but i am pretty sure that even $50 american is ALOT of money to the average person there. I'd be very surprised if zero maxima's are being collected and exported.
Not saying that they are Maxima's, i really have no idea but i think it is a little funny that everyone is positive they are not maxima's but have no idea what they actually are.
