ID this one

[GreshamH]

It was collected ~30 in a shallow reef environment in Tonga around 2 months ago. They thought is was a laptastrea, but it's got larger polyps and a different coralite structure then any lapt's I've ever seen.
For reference, the green center palythoa's are giant mexican saucer polyps @ ~1 1/4" across
On the right side of one shot, there's a morning star monti showing it's green polyps (size reference).

The white edges seen in these pics, are where the coral was cut off the mainly colony/reef head.
It hasn't grown, nor has it done any real recedding. So, what are your thoughts?

These next two are of the polyps retracted, showing some coralite features (not much).

 

[GreshamH]

These shots were taken an hour prior to feeding , for those that wanna comment on the open mouths

 

[ReefDoctorMicromussas]

Interesting piece...

 

[dkk08]

I might be wrong but they look like another type of dendro :rollface:

 

[JENnKerry]

Looks like a branching goniopora.

 

[organism]

I second that one, definitely a kind of goniopora

 

[GreshamH]

It's only got around 18 tentacles per polyp, and they never extend much further then seen above. When it was collected, this is how much is was extended then as well, as per collectors viewing of my photos (gotta love the internet, and knowing the team that collected it )

 

[GreshamH]

I've always thought it was a goni, but I thought they typically had ~24 tentacles to each polyp?

 

[gflat65]

Looks like goni, too, but the tentacle count is interesting. How many does Alveopora have? That is an interesting piece. FWIW, I have what I believe to be Goni stuchburyi and the polyps only extend a max of 3/8" and are tiny (for a goni).

 

[Hormigaquatica]

Not sure what it is, though I believe goniopora has 24 tentacles and alveopora has 12. Very interesting looking piece.

 

[GreshamH]

Possiably a:

Madracis Kibyi

http://whelk.aims.gov.au/coralsearch/html/201-300/Species pages/239.htm

I'll have to get a better coralite shot tonight to see for as sure as I can get

 

[GreshamH]

Only problem with that one, is Veron says it's polyps are usually open at night, and the coralite walls don't seem to be raised like the ones in my pic

 

[bobafett]

Looks like a pagoda to me. They do grow like that sometimes (not always a perfectly round cup). Their polyps can grow very close together also. Here is a poor pic of one I had about a year ago. It got too big for the tank so I traded it (almost 10" in dia.).

 

[Underwaterparadise]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8039717#post8039717 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bobafett
Looks like a pagoda to me. They do grow like that sometimes (not always a perfectly round cup). Their polyps can grow very close together also. Here is a poor pic of one I had about a year ago. It got too big for the tank so I traded it (almost 10" in dia.).

Send me a frag for closer inspection

Pagoda was my guess but that was without even researching