ID please

[Zoanut]

I brought this from a LFS through mail, when I talked to them on the phone they told me it was a blue and green monti. It arrived today and I opened it up and this is what I got. To me it looks like some kind of Hydrophoria. What do you guys think? as you can imagine I'm pretty angry about it and when I email them and asked if they sent me the wrong thing they replied for me to test my tank and asked what kind of lights it was under and to give it a few days. They also pretty much said I am wrong and they are right. Sorry about the crappy pic.

 

[klepto]

Yeah, I'm not aware of any Montipora species that looks like that.

I would guess that it is some species of Merulina. Possibly M. ampliata.

http://coral.aims.gov.au/speciesPages/species_metadata/0240/view#

It sounds like you are dealing with a pretty unreliable and unreasonable source. Shop elsewhere, there are plenty of quality aquacultured corals available through RC's members.

 

[hogpark7430]

I think it's coral.

 

[Zoanut]

Yeah, I'm not aware of any Montipora species that looks like that.

I would guess that it is some species of Merulina. Possibly M. ampliata.

http://coral.aims.gov.au/speciesPages/species_metadata/0240/view#

It sounds like you are dealing with a pretty unreliable and unreasonable source. Shop elsewhere, there are plenty of quality aquacultured corals available through RC's members.

I wish I could, you guys can get some awesome corals. I live in New Zealand.

 

[klepto]

And there aren't any other NZ reefkeepers! Come on mate. You live so close to the GBR! I find it hard to believe you don't have any means of tapping into some local resources...

 

[Zoanut]

And there aren't any other NZ reefkeepers! Come on mate. You live so close to the GBR! I find it hard to believe you don't have any means of tapping into some local resources...

Haha NZ is closer to USA than GBR. I have posted it on our local forum as well so just getting a wider opinion on what it is.

 

[klepto]

Haha NZ is closer to USA than GBR. I have posted it on our local forum as well so just getting a wider opinion on what it is.

:uhoh3: Huh? The flight distance is 7000km more from LA to Auckland compared to Cairns to Auckland. Am I missing something? Oh, now I know why, you probably thought I was referring to Great Britain... by GBR I mean the Great Barrier Reef.

No worries. I'm not talking about the ID, I just mean finding a good source of corals.

 

[Zoanut]

Ahh yeah I did think you meant GBR (Great Briton) haha sorry. The thing with finding a good source for corals is that the market in USA and Europe are so much bigger compared to NZ and Aussie that we end up getting all the leftovers.

 

[klepto]

Proximity still has to come into play. I trust there are some pieces being cherry picked and inevitably cultured and circulated in Aus.

The healthiest and nicest pieces I have been able to acquire have been from fellow hobbyists local to me. Initially I told myself, "no one keeps reef tanks in this area". How I was wrong!

 

[Zoanut]

Yeap people do do that here as well but there are some things that are really hard to come by not just that but NZ being two islands we have very strict standards in place on what is allowed in NZ and what isn't, fish being a prime example alot of them are not on the allowed list because they think that if they get into our ocean they could do damage to the native fish a fuana. There are still alot of corals you don't see here as well like alot of the Zoas and encrusting montis the USA gets.

 

[Zoanut]

Found my camera so took some better pics.