Scolymia or Ancanthastrea maxima?

[plantastic]

I was curious as to what other experienced reefers thoughts are for this piece...

Veron's book lists one of the identifying features for the Ancanthastrea maxima, as looking like a multi-head Scolymia...yet not as large as an actual Scolymia.

Here's the pic...





Thanks for looking, and any insight...

 

[Almondsaz]

It is definitely Acan IMHO The center of the Scolymia australis appears a lot more bumpy like a typical scoly. Not sure if I would call it a maxima.

 

[sucker_fish]

Im thinking acan...

 

[greech]

Acan lord.

 

[plantastic]

Thanks for looking, guys...

It is definitely not a Lordhowensis...the polyps are too big...the pic really doesn't give it an accurate size reference.

The polyps are easily twice as big as a Lordhowensis, but about 1/2 the size of a Scolymia...

I'll see if I can get a pic to give a better reference of size...

 

[rogersb]

I thought maximas only came from waters that are restricted from collecting.

 

[kichimark]

I have one with the same colors and one that is orange and green. I was told they are Bowerbanki.

 

[organism]

That's an Acan bowerbanki, nice find.

 

[kichimark]

Bought this as a single polyp. Currently has around 12.

 

[Nano sapiens]

At last count there was something like 12 different Acanthastrea species. A lot of the A. bowerbanki have this same 'orange with green stripes' and there appears to be some plasticity to the polyp shape in this specimen (A. lordhowensis tends to have quite rounded, more separated polyps). Bowerbanki polyps can get large, too (mine has a polyp over 2" across).

Nice coral!

 

[Nano sapiens]

Bought this as a single polyp. Currently has around 12.

That is a nice one!

 

[Hypnotize]

Acan bowerbanki reverse bleeding apple

 

[plantastic]

Thanks for the ID guys...I settled on the ID of Bowerbanki. i was originally looking through Veron's "Corals of the Indo-Pacific", but then looked through his "Corals of the World", and figured it out...i was going to update this thread, but this post was buried, so...out of sight, out of existence...!

When I bought it, I was told it was a "multi-polyped Scolymia"...but I wasn't buying that...!