Cross posting a coral ID request

[propeine]

I posted this in the newbie section and got one response suggesting it was maybe a sponge so I'm reposting here where someone may know. Here's my story except its been another week now and the fleshy part has grown a bit more but lost the orange. I think I need to turn my lights up...

So i picked up an approx 3" piece of LR for free from a LFS. I wanted it to seed coraline algae and it had a lot on the sides. Looked like a favia colony maybe that had been left upside down. It was in a poorly lit LR tank with mild circulation and minimal CFL lighting. Long story short I scraped it a bit and dropped it in my tank. After about a week a purple/maroon growth was growing across the old skeleton. I didn't think much of it until it started forming a mouth. Its been 2 1/2 weeks now and some of the purple is turning a bright orange on the tips. The mouth opens if I blow food at it and then will close up for a while. Any tips on what it is, how to help it make a recovery if possible (which judging from growth in 2 weeks seems very possible). Its in high light and low flow at the moment in a month old tank.

Params as follows
Salinity 1.025
Calcium 490ppm
DKH 7.5 (working on bringing this up)
Ammonia 0.0
Nitrite 0.0
Nitrate 20-30ppm
Phosphate unreadable
Water temp 78-79
LED lighting set at 50% pwm dimming of 120w

any help is appreciated and sorry for the blurry pic. Damn point and shoot cameras

 

[Capt_Cully]

I'm thinking it's acanthastrea echinata or a favia. Either way, more light won't help it. I'm thinking it's on it's way out. I'd put it somewhere quiet & hope for the best. Moving it around might cause further stress.

 

[tmz]

Looks like a favid of some type. Can't really tell whether a polyp is growing or something else is taking over the skeleton. The one visible mouth appears to be gaping; not good thing. It may grow back some heads ove a long period of time in good conditions. I agree low light and realtively low flow might help it.

 

[propeine]

Well the one mouth that is there closes regularly but also didn't start out having a mouth. It was just fleshy like the lower portion and grew into a mouth. That's what surprised me the most. Thanks for the tip on the lights. Would you recommend feeding it anything or just leaving it be?

Thanks guys

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk 2

 

[tmz]

I'd leave it alone but spraying a little coral frenzy or another small particle food at it in small amounts wouldn't hurt.

 

[propeine]

Alright. Thanks Tom (great name by the way mine too!) I'll leave it be for a while and just see what happens. Not like I paid a dime for it.