Coral IDs for Casady

[JasonF]

My wife takes care of the tank in Casady Lower School and we need to ID the coral. Some of these came from Paul today (I forgot to get him to ID them before I left) and some were already there. We need at least the genus and the common name, so we can put up pictures identifying the coral. The kids want to know more than "Dory" and "Nemo".

 

[gregzbobo]

I have an idea what the first one might be, thinking its an encrusting Montipora sp., but not sure, so don't quote me.

The bottom one is a green star polyp Briareium sp., previously/sometimes known as Clavularia viridis.

The 4th looks like a fairly common Palythoa sp, sometimes called button polyps, rather closely related to zoanthids. Handle them with care, a few palythoas are known to produce one of the most potent toxins (palytoxin) known. If you handle them, it'd be a good idea I think to wear gloves and safety glasses and have the kids keep a safe distance, just in case.

As for the rest, I've a few ideas, but zero certainty. Whoever positively identifies, I'd like to know for sure myself.

 

[Lytehouse]

Starting from top:

Meteor Shower Cypestrea
Very nice Lobo
Very pretty Favia
Green Button Polyps
Acan
Lobo Frag
Star Polyps

You can google for scientific names or the club has a couple nice books in the library you could request brought to the meeting to check out.

Or it could be a science project for an older child or Comas member :hammer:

 

[pwhitby]

Cyphastrea ocellina
Lobophyllia hemprichii
Favites sp (christmas favia)
Palythoa
Acanthastrea lordhowensis (acan)
Lobophyllia hemprichii
Clavularia viridis

 

[oddballs]

On number 3 it might be some species of Montastrea sp. of some sort. real name of star polyps are pachyclavularia sp.(spelling ?).Lytehouse hit the rest on the head.All are looking really healthy!!

 

[JasonF]

Thanks everyone! The kids love being able to look at pictures and then go find what it shows. We only had a few corals in the tank until now so we mainly had done it with fish.

 

[MyMonkey]

My son is in first grade there. Of course he loves the tank room as they call it. Glad to hear they got new corals and from Paul nonetheless! Thanks Paul!