Need help to ID SPS from the pros!

[crhanse007]

I'm sorry for the poor picture. I also posted this in the I.D forum, but this place seems to be getting more views and action. I have had this coral for the entire two years I have had my tank. It came in as a hitch hiker on my live rock. It has grown from the size of a pin head to the size of a quarter with a daughter head springing up from it and growing just as big. The picture's white balance is off, so it really isn't blue. When inflated, it has maroon ridges with green in the groves and a green mouth. It does readily accept the mysis shrimp I feed to my other corals, and will almost fold up around the food and bring it to its mouth. However, I went for a while not feeding it anything and it did fine as well, so I think it is photosynthetic. My best guess is it is a Blastomussa, but I haven't found it's picture on any website that I have searched. Any ideas from the pros?

Thanks,

Sarah

 

[Threelittlefish]

That's not an sps (small poly stony). It looks like a mushroom polyp.

 

[crhanse007]

Thanks for the reply. It is not a mushroom. I have several mushrooms in my tank. It has no neck, just lies flush against the rock. It cannot be moved. It has stony ridges under the flesh and is attached very strongly to the rock. The flesh can inflate or retract back into the skeleton. It is almost growing like a montipora as it grows out in a disk-like shape. It has both a stony skeleton and fleshy polyps.

 

[fishieness]

Looks more like a type of fungidae to me, which is an LPS. Got a picture with some daylights?

 

[crhanse007]

No, I don't have any other pictures, and my actinic lights are on now. I will try to get some better pictures tomorrow with my halides on. Thanks for the thoughts. I will check out the fungidae family and see if I can see anyone that looks close. I did see this exact coral in a restaurant and it had grown very large, at least 5 to 6 inches across. They couldn't i.d. it for me either. This very well could be it.

 

[crhanse007]

Just checked on some other forums. It seems that Fungidea will grow on live rock when younger, then drop off to the sand when they mature. It seems you may have i.d. at least the family! Thank you! I will try to get better pictures under better lighting tomorrow. I didn't think plate coral, because it was on the rock. But, it does look like a tiny plate coral.