Micromussa Vs. Acanastrea Lorowensis

cilyjr

Active member
how might one tell the difference?....i have a few lords and i bought something that i thought was another lord but is much smallerand acts far differently
 
very hard to tell without analyzing the skeleton.

as an average hobbyist, just know that micromussa as the name implies has much smaller polyps.
 
I wouldn't say it's very hard to tell the difference at all.

The polyps are generally smaller than a. lordhowensis, but there are other factors that are unmistakable.....the texture of the mantle, the spacing and orientation of the polyps, pattern, etc

In fact, polyps size on it's own can be misleading.....i've seen some micro amak. colonies that have polyps that rival that of a. lords in size easily.

That being said, no one can be 100% undeniably sure without comparing skeletons.

Zach
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11739207#post11739207 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Patwa
I wouldn't say it's very hard to tell the difference at all.

The polyps are generally smaller than a. lordhowensis, but there are other factors that are unmistakable.....the texture of the mantle, the spacing and orientation of the polyps, pattern, etc

In fact, polyps size on it's own can be misleading.....i've seen some micro amak. colonies that have polyps that rival that of a. lords in size easily.

That being said, no one can be 100% undeniably sure without comparing skeletons.

Zach

I agree with the first sentence :D But there after I question some things. First texture of the mantle. Since when did this become a indentifying factor? As I have both with smooth surfaces and the ruffly, but never concluded it to one being a micro and the other a lord as they both 'appear' to be a lordhowensis. Secondly, on the micro amak colony that have polyps that rival the size of a lord. How do you know for certain it wasnt indeed a lord?? And spacing and orientation of polyps, and patterns? This is all speculation and conjecture.

Even on a skeletal anaylysis we would all be stumped, period. There is nothing in the description of both specie that us as hobbyists can use to distinguish these animals. For the micro it mentions a certain mm of coralite size is indicative of this animal, but does not mention the size of the lord, and if indeed it can be just as small, or not. Furthering the difficulty the scientist who could properly identify the two points out each one as similar and references them both to each other, but again gives no distinguishing characteristics to differentiate the two.



-Justin
 
what do you think the coral in question are circled. they are touching the acans...in the pic it kind of looks like it is a ways behind it.

micro.jpg
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11752747#post11752747 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cilyjr
smaller than dime sized ? i guess what i want is an idea of exactly how small

pink.jpg


Here's my Acan and Micro for example to compare.

-Justin
 
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