Someone please give this coral a proper name.

[Palting]

I've had this coral for a while, identified as a Turquoise acro at the lfs. Right, the same way I have a greenfish fish .

Full shot. It seems to like to make club like formations at the ends of the branching:

If it helps, here's a close up of the club like formations:

Thanks!!

 

[Frick]

Wow, very cool colony.

My first guess would be Acropora awi.
http://coral.aims.gov.au/speciesPages/species_metadata/0792/view#

Maybe A. echinata. The branches look too thick for that tho.
http://coral.aims.gov.au/speciesPages/species_metadata/0026/view#

The most proper way to name this would to pick one of the species you would agree with, and for example call it "Acropora cf. awi"

 

[Palting]

Thanks, Jason. That's better than what I was thinking: Green caveman club acropora. LOL!

I've read through those links, and other links in the pages, and beginning to learn some acropora jargon. To my eye the branches of my coral seem to be thicker than the pics of either awi or echinata. Based on descriptions of growths, it seems to be in between a bottlebrush growth and a cluster growth. Maybe this is supposed to be a cluster growing coral, just grew weird because it got fragged before I got it?

Maybe a picture when it was first bought may help. Here' are a few pics taken when it was relatively new from the LFS, about 2 years ago:

 

[Palting]

This thing has been nagging me since I bought it. I know Acropora taxonomy is difficult even when done live, even more so when done from pictures.

I think I may have found one name I can tag it with without making me feel too silly: Acropora austera. Seems to fit the description, as much as a hobbyist can understand, anyway:
"Colonies are mostly arborescent, often with highly fused main branches. Main branches often curve away from each other and typically taper. Sub-branches are numerous, irregular in size and also taper. Axial corallites are thick walled but have small openings. Radial corallites are sometimes arranged in rows, are irregular in size, the larger projecting outwards with wide square-shaped openings."

Here are pictures I pulled out of the web: http://www.garretts-acropolis.com/Enlarged_picture_pages/Acropora_austera_lg.htm

What do y'all think?

 

[Frick]

A. austera's axial corallites will not extend as fare as yours do. Plus as a colony austera is usually a thick branch that slopes off horizontally.
http://coral.aims.gov.au/speciesPages/species_metadata/0010/view#

Check out A. aculeus. Looks a lot like your younger pics. The colony could be just growing so fast that the corallites are getting longer.
http://coral.aims.gov.au/speciesPages/species_metadata/0006/view#

 

[Palting]

I think that's it! A. aculeus. Thanks, Jason!

 

[Frick]

I think that's it! A. aculeus. Thanks, Jason!

Okay sounds good. if you really want to be proper then name would be "Acropora cf. aculeus". "cf." stands for confer, and basically means this is the closest identification but not 100% sure.