microbubbles
New member
looks pretty damn close to me. with how much certainty can some scientist say that this species occurs specifically to the red sea and nowhere else?
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MCsaxmaster
New member
Well, JEN Veron is the authority on this. He's been working on coral taxonomy for the past 20 yrs and has made tens of thosands of dives. I'm guessing he has a better handle on species distribution and identification than the folks at Reefermadness 
cj
cj
mntl
New member
looks like somwhere inbetween a maryae and loripes (sp?). Assuming that you can see a ring of color (slight) around the tips I would think loripes, (all the maryae photos I can find do not have color rings around the tips of the coralites, this could be environmental though) but the coralites look thick for a loripes so maybe loripes that was exposed to alot of flow? These are all just guesses btw. Otoh All it takes is one maryae to begin aquaculturing, it is unlikely but still possible one was collected or found in a legal collection area. Is it aquacultured or wild? RM, so I am assuming AC/MC?
very pretty none the less, I would dissagree with deep-water/reef-slope though. jmo
-John-
very pretty none the less, I would dissagree with deep-water/reef-slope though. jmo
-John-
MCsaxmaster
New member
Nah, no chance this is A. maryae. Wild collected or aquacultured it's from the indopacific, and that's a solid 5000 miles from that coral's range. Collection and aquaculture is usually right next to an airport too, otherwise it would be uneconomical. Hence, the corals in captivity aren't even from a wide berth--mostly just reefs near airports.
cj
cj
ReeferMadnessUS
In Memoriam
Hey All,
I am by no means a scientific expert (who looks at corallite structure through a microscope) but I do see thousands upon thousands of corals every week and I try to do the best with what resources I have. From the experience that I have, I can see the differences between the overall structures of most Acropora. If you all check the history of why I called it A. mayae you will see that according to Veron's photos it is by far the closest to this species (which only occurs in the Red Sea). I stated this from my original ID.
Check the following link:
http://www.reefermadness.us/RMDF_Pur_mon_sol.htm
But not to burst anyones bubble and just for discussion's sake, I don't think that some of the corals that make it into the hobby have been seen (and therefore identified) by the experts or scientists out there. And yes I know that there can be different growth structures depending upon flow and depth. Take this Acro (maryae- for arguments sake) coming from the Solomon's. It looks Identical the A. maryae and I am sorry it does not look in similar in shape and form to A. loripes. But the Red Sea like someone pointed out is 5 thousand or so miles away. Is there a chance that this is a different species that has not been ID'd? I personally found an Tabletop Acropora while in Fiji on a wall at about 50' and then again I found the the same Acro in a cave about 10 feet back that has not been identified (at least to what I can make out). Check this link:
http://www.reefermadness.us/RMD11180146.htm
From the photo it might be hard to see but there is nothing that is similar within Veron. The loose intertwining branch structure, cupped shaped axial corallites, deep water so on and so forth... Might I be missing something? Yes, but I look through Veron so much that the binding is worn out. I carefully flip through every page trying to match the corals that we get in to something within this wonderful set of books.
Now the point I am trying to make is, there is an ominous amount of ocean, and there is no possible way that a scientist or a group of scientists have covered every single reef in every ocean. This means that a huge amount of animals have gone and will be undescribed until they are "found" and placed in a classification. And I am sure that we have all seen corals that have come in from the collectors that are posted on RC that really don't match anything within any book. I am not talking about those that have been changed by artificial reef keeping means.
Take any ID by us vendors as a grain of salt. They are just names, but we have to start somewhere. They can't all be some catchy "name" that is applied, nor can they be Acropora sp. so we try and do our best and match them to something so we sort of sound like we know what we are talking about.
I like to monkey around with wrenches....
Enjoy our reefs while we can...
Chris @ RM
I am by no means a scientific expert (who looks at corallite structure through a microscope) but I do see thousands upon thousands of corals every week and I try to do the best with what resources I have. From the experience that I have, I can see the differences between the overall structures of most Acropora. If you all check the history of why I called it A. mayae you will see that according to Veron's photos it is by far the closest to this species (which only occurs in the Red Sea). I stated this from my original ID.
Check the following link:
http://www.reefermadness.us/RMDF_Pur_mon_sol.htm
But not to burst anyones bubble and just for discussion's sake, I don't think that some of the corals that make it into the hobby have been seen (and therefore identified) by the experts or scientists out there. And yes I know that there can be different growth structures depending upon flow and depth. Take this Acro (maryae- for arguments sake) coming from the Solomon's. It looks Identical the A. maryae and I am sorry it does not look in similar in shape and form to A. loripes. But the Red Sea like someone pointed out is 5 thousand or so miles away. Is there a chance that this is a different species that has not been ID'd? I personally found an Tabletop Acropora while in Fiji on a wall at about 50' and then again I found the the same Acro in a cave about 10 feet back that has not been identified (at least to what I can make out). Check this link:
http://www.reefermadness.us/RMD11180146.htm
From the photo it might be hard to see but there is nothing that is similar within Veron. The loose intertwining branch structure, cupped shaped axial corallites, deep water so on and so forth... Might I be missing something? Yes, but I look through Veron so much that the binding is worn out. I carefully flip through every page trying to match the corals that we get in to something within this wonderful set of books.
Now the point I am trying to make is, there is an ominous amount of ocean, and there is no possible way that a scientist or a group of scientists have covered every single reef in every ocean. This means that a huge amount of animals have gone and will be undescribed until they are "found" and placed in a classification. And I am sure that we have all seen corals that have come in from the collectors that are posted on RC that really don't match anything within any book. I am not talking about those that have been changed by artificial reef keeping means.
Take any ID by us vendors as a grain of salt. They are just names, but we have to start somewhere. They can't all be some catchy "name" that is applied, nor can they be Acropora sp. so we try and do our best and match them to something so we sort of sound like we know what we are talking about.
I like to monkey around with wrenches....
Enjoy our reefs while we can...
Chris @ RM
