Acans vs. Lords vs. Blasto

wonrib00

New member
My LFS has a sump full of acans, lords and blastos that need to be fragged up. The owner told me that or every colony I frag of, I can have a frag of each, SWEET DEAL! She is having me practice on the not so nice pieces first, before I get to the really nice stuff. I would like to know the difference between Acans, Lords, and Blastos. When my lights go on, I will post some pics of the two I have gotten already. Thanks.
 
Acan (Acanthastrea) is the genus name.
"Lords" is short for lordhowensis (the species name).
Acanthastrea lordhowensis is what people are referring to when they say Acan lords or lords.
The genus Acanthastrea has 12 reported species in it.
bowerbanki
brevis
echinata
faviaformis
hemprichii
hillae
ishigakiensis
lordhowensis
maxima
regularis
rotundoflora
subechinata

Balstomussa is a differnt genus and contains the reported species merleti and wellsi.

hth,
Sean
 
well said sean. post us some pics and we'll let you know exactly what you have and the best way to frag them.
 
The method for fragging Acanthastrea echinata, Acanthastrea lordhowensis, and Blastomussa wellsi is very similar. You can use a dremel, wet tile saw, or hammer and chisel method for any of them. The Blastomussa has the most brittle skeleton of the three while the Echinata has the thickest skeleton. It's best to cut in between polyps, but don't be alarmed if you cut a polyp in half. They will grow back.
 
I got them fragged up. I used the Dremel method and cut inbetween each polyp. I cant post pics because we wipped our computer a few days ago and I cant find my copy of photoshop. I should be able to post some pics hopefully by Monday. Thanks for the help everyone.
 
33198AcanLord-thumb.jpg

33198AcanLord2-thumb.jpg
 
I guess this is what I get when I hvent used photoshop in a while.
33198AcanLord2_1.jpg

These are a little more teal than they look. The cut through polyps were actually receading when I cut them up, but they look a lot better in my tank than they did in LFS.
33198Tealblasto-thumb.jpg

33198Greenblasto-thumb.jpg
 
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