Question for Texas Collectors

[reefy em]

I am a graduate student at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and my professor and I are discussing doing my thesis project on whip corals found on jetties in the Texas coast. Specifically the orange species found on the jetty in Port Aransas. I am having trouble identifying this species as not much work has been done on it that I have found. I was wondering if anyone on here who has collected or seen these has IDd them or knows anything about them (I believe they are non-photosynthetic). Let me know, it will really help my study out!

TIA, Emily

 

[skeeter-doc]

possibly Swiftia sp.?

 

[reefy em]

Ok, I found out is is a Leptogorgia species. Anyone?

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

You might want to discuss this on the Advanced Topics forum and the Soft Coral forums. You would broaden your range of responses. For what it's worth, you might want to look into legal issues of collecting such animals in the water first. Another reason why you haven't seen much of these in the US through the LFS is because of their difficulty to keep in captivity for private aquarists. So, you might be hard pressed on finding any information this way. I would talk with as many LFSs as possible in your area and ask them for contact information from as many of their wholesalers and collectors from the area that you are looking at. They might be able to get you more information or provide a place for where you can go for information. Another longshot would be to contact the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to see if someone would be able to point you to some reference material or contacts. And a doubtful shot would be to contact the Australian Marine Institue of Science (AIMS)

Sorry I personally couldn't have helped more, but maybe that will give you some leads or ideas.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

Here, feel free to read up on any and all links found here.

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Leptogorgia&hl=en&lr=&btnG=Search