Please ID this Acro

[André Silvestre]

Fellow RC members,

A friend of mine has this Acro in his tank.
I have a suspicion of what it is but would like a confirmation from more knowledgeable sources. I didn´t had my camera at the moment so the picture is from a cel phone. Sorry for the bad quality.

Brief description: the majority of the color is solid pink with greenish hue on the base and between the base and the beginning of the tips, where is more shaded. Polyps are also pink. It encrusted strongly to the rock and only after it began to sprout some buds until you see in the present time.

Here it is:



Thank you for time.

André

 

[Frick]

I know ORAs Red Planet name will get dropped. Which i will agree, it does look like it. But, IMO it does not deserve the ORAs Red Planet name if it does not have the lineage. So with no lineage to go by then a species name should be sought for an ID. One question i will have for you will be "Are ORAs corals available to Portugal?"

There are many theories to what Red Planet is as a species. I am leaning towards Acropora anthocercis. Your coral also meets the description as well. So I am going with A. anthocercis.
http://coral.aims.gov.au/speciesPages/species_metadata/0008/view#

 

[André Silvestre]

Jason, first of all, thank you for your reply.

I understand you guys give a great deal to lineage in order to track down corals and proceed to their correct identification. I also agree with such a system.

So, to answer your question, as far as I know ( and I am always checking out the reef scene in my country), no, Ora corals are not available to distribution in LFS. However, we also import many corals from all around the world through our LFS´s and we also buy pieces from German on-line stores which, I think, it´s this particular case. I have seen corals equivalent to Ora´s such as Red Planet, Pearlberry, Oregon Tort... I think we are seeing more and more corals that look very alike the ones you ID with such names here in Europe ( Germany, UK, Spain) but without confirming the lineage as you well stated, collectors can only speculate the true ID of each coral (and they will, of course), regarding the pictures you guys in the States post here or in any other reef board.

For years, never such pieces appeared in our market or at our disposal. This particular coral is something that I have only seen in two places personally ( here and Spain) in the last 6 months and it has such unique characteristics that an immediate ID such as the one you gave came to my mind. It´s not the average coral or one that is hard to ID due to the color pattern, the formation, the behavior and corallite structure. So you ended up confirming my suspicion on a first glance, despite the lineage issue which would be of great relevance to confirm it.

I always thought that the ORA Red Planet would be an Acropora hyacinthus.


André

 

[Frick]

I always thought that the ORA Red Planet would be an Acropora hyacinthus.

I have heard that too. I have seen the mother colony (ORAs Red Planet) and it is tough to even decide from that.

The two are really tough to tell apart, I can not tell you if there would be any differences at the size of yours. The main difference is in the way they table. A. anthocercis will be a thick cluster of branches to make a table and A. hyacinthus will usually be flatter but grow into tiers when it gets too big.
http://coral.aims.gov.au/speciesPages/species_metadata/0036/view#

 

[dvanacker]

The type and colour of ORA red planet is not that rare. I see RR canada bring quite a few corals that they declare as "red planet" Some of them I think are slightly different. Its like saying all blue millepora are the exact same...same colour, same growth rate, same hardiness. But that is not the truth IMO....there are slight differences. One may grow faster, one may be slightly deeper blue, etc. To say that all blue acropora millepora are the exact same is like saying all the people of a certain race are the same. They are all the same species yes and some may even have the same features but always slight differences.

 

[Frick]

Well said Darryl.