We are having no luck identifying this coral. My husband got it a year ago from a small lfs out of town, it was about a quarter size frag. In is now larger then the size of my palm. It is bright neon green base with bright dark blue or royal purple dots. We seemed to have mixed reviews with half saying chalice and the other half saying some form of Monti. Would love any identification help.
Help identifying Monti or chalice??m
- Thread starter jesstabby
- Start date
codydemmel4
Active member
i dont see any eyes so i would say monti, but with that said im not sure which monti. im sure someone will be able to point it out though. I would just look up monti pictures on google and see which one looks like it
imho it's an encrusting monti but i could be totally wrong
Which one specific it is(danae etc),i don't know.
I don't see any raised verrucae so definitely not danae. I can't really get a clear look at the papillae in the first pic to confirm as its kinda blurred/ low res. , but I am about 80% sure its M. peltiformis. aka (purple prince monti) They encrust, but also form plates as well.
Danae was just a random example,that's why i added etc.
As far as my guess goes,it could be any of the encrusting kind(rainbow,sunset,etc),can't be sure because color can be different from tank to tank...but then again i could be 100% wrong
Never use colors as ID with SPS coral, they vary far too much.
M. peltiformis base will turn bright green under bluer captive lighting, but again, color is the last thing you should look at when Id'ing SPS coral, hence why taxonomists usually get most accurate ID's by using dead skeletons.
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Understood...but the color is a signficant distinguishing factor for this coral and the pictures posted are not under blue light (which wouldn't be helpful). If there is something else that I could provide to help with identification please let me know. The purple/blue polyps are raised and very dense. Again is most resembles our blue monti in thickness, structure, and how it grows in plate structure (although it grows more slowly). Thank you again for everyone's feedback...hoping someone out there has seen our has something very similar that will she'd some more definitive light.
I highly doubt tyree flower petal monti, as that coral is most likely a form or close species to M.hodgsoni, completely different in taxonomy than OP's coral. AGAIN !! you have to look towards taxonomic features, corallite structure, verrucae and papillae to correctly ID montipora, color means nothing, neither does polyp extension.
Tyree flower monti has distinctively raised/ ridged verrucae, OP's coral does not.
Im almost positive OP's coral is M. peltiformis.
Those pictures of my peltiformis definitely look like our coral. Thank you so much..the blue polyps (I'm sure this isn't the right term) are much more dense on ours, in some areas of the edge you can't even see the green. Thank you again for all your help this the clowest we have come to an answer since we got it!
You are most welcome, polyp density can vary coral-coral, again ideally a bone white dead skeleton is the most accurate way to ID pretty much any coral.
without seeing that, it is hard to be sure, we can only make educated guesses, However, in this case, I am fairly confident its M. peltifromis.
beautiful coral, looks very happy, hope it does well for you.
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