H. crispa (green)?

[KirbyBTF]

My h crispa seems to be turning green? It has always been a healthy brown color but recently it seems to have settled in (hit its 1 month mark in my tank) and opened up a lot larger. Is this coloration normal? Kinda hard to see in the pics.

Last pic is when I just got it

 

[addictedreefer]

Looks like H. malu to me, no?

 

[KirbyBTF]

Wow, sorry those pictures are so huge. I posted them from my phone.
Anyways back on topic. From my research H. Malu have little rings near the tip of the tentacles, this one has the little purple dot on the very tip and that's it. If I'm wrong on the species by all means correct me.

 

[ThRoewer]

H. malu and H. crispa are sometimes hard to distinguish.
An unhappy crispa can look like a malu and a very happy malu like a crispa.
Though a crispa should have a higher tentacle count, it can reduce some of its tentacles to little nobs.
But at some point, if the crispa is doing well it will get much more and much longer tentacles than a malu. A crispa will also easily get twice as big as a malu.

I know that malu can get dark green but never have seen a really green crispa. All crispa I had and have seen were shades of cream, brown and purple.
But then again I have never had a healthy and happy one long enough under LED (which seem to promote green).
Right now I have two (unhappy) crispa and 3 malu under identical conditions. The malu are all dark green while the crispa are cream but slowly getting darker. Under actinic light they have a somewhat green look, which I think is a protective reaction to some of the LED light.

Yours looks to me like a somewhat unhappy crispa due to the number of tentacles, but at this stage I would also not rule out for it to be a malu.

 

[davocean]

Agree w/ Roewer on all points, not all Malu have rings on tentacles.
I'm split between the 2 w/ those pics as to which it is.

 

[KirbyBTF]

After reading your responses, and doing some more googling, it seems like it may be a Malu. As for unhappy, it eats 2-3 times a week, has a tightly closed mouth, but is still fairly new (1 month) to the tank. What do you mean by the number of tentacles, the sparseness between them?
Also, I picked this guy up from PetCo at a discount because it had damage to the tentacles so that could be playing a part as well.
The green could be because of the LED I run, who knows.

 

[ThRoewer]

Happy is judged by appearance, mostly expansion and tentacle length.
Healthy and a good feeding response is a different thing.

This one looks healthy but not entirely happy.

 

[davocean]

The very last pic totally looks like Malu to me, minus the rings they usually have, which happens.
I think it looks pretty typical of a fairly new to your tank nem.
Malu will typically stay down low and smallish, crispa will typically reach up for all the light it can get and get huge.

 

[KirbyBTF]

Another pic. It just keeps getting bigger. Which points to Crispa. No sign of green coloration any more.

 

[ThRoewer]

Just from the tentacle count I would say crispa.

A little iridescent green under actinic light is possible even with a crispa. That is just "sunscreen", but a solid green under white light is something I have never seen with a crispa, neither in person or on pictures.

 

[garygb]

Looking good. Keep up the good work.

 

[Winwood]

That looks to be a large H. malu.

 

[KirbyBTF]

What makes you think that? I'm not disagreeing I just want to know.

 

[Winwood]

Tentacle shape and length. After seeing lots of malus over the years, that is pretty much what a large, healthy malu looks like.

 

[CoralsAddiction]

I have seen a few Malus and tons of Crispas. It looks more like a Malu.

 

[KirbyBTF]

Awesome thanks! Are there differences in the foot? Mine is tan with spots.

 

[addictedreefer]

Tentacle shape and length. After seeing lots of malus over the years, that is pretty much what a large, healthy malu looks like.

+1. This is malu all the way IMO. I understand some might flame me for not being scientific, but acclimating or not, when you've seen enough of these things, you know 'em when yo see 'em. Same for gig/haddoni/mert IDs -- I understand why some are confused, especially when they are sick or acclimating, but I usually can sniff out the difference from experience.