Unique coral - searching for other instances of it

[treesprite]

Hi All,

I have been communicating with Steve Tyree (and Bob Fenner via Wet Web Media) about my Tyree LE Idaho Grape Monti, since tiny pieces of it started growing green polyps, after I had scraped and chipped the IG monti off of my liverock to clear real estate (hence open wounds allowing opportunity for foreign DNA to get in).

The conjecture is, that this may well be a unique coral, and that these green polyps are arising out of hybridization with green pocillopora.

I am trying to find other instances of this naturally occurring hybrid, to determine rarity and to compare notes with anyone who has witnessed this hybridization of these two specific corals.

The first coral is a Tyree LE Idaho Grape Montipora Undata. My frag came from John Coppolino who got his parent from Reeffarmers when the coral was first distributed.

The second is (suspected) to be green pocillopora. This is such a common coral that I can't get more specific. I got frags from 2 different WAMAS members, so I am not sure which of them would have been the source of the DNA, and do not know the ancestry.

Please provide information! Thank you!

 

[JOSE CASAS]

I also have a neon green monti that I have had for years and recently has developed red swirls on it. I suspect grafting have taken place between the 2 montis. Sorry I cant post pix.

 

[Whisperer]

I doubt hybridization in this case (pocillopora and acropora). Maybe contamination of another zooxanthellae or just merely environmental influence such as light intensity and/or spectral change. Mutation, although much remotely, is another consideration.

 

[BillyC]

I too would not bet on hybridization as it is extremely rare and usually impossible between different species.

 

[treesprite]

Thanks for the responses. I am going to post some responses I to comments from people on other forums... I had registered and posted on a lot of forums for the purpose of information-gathering. I think if more people communicated with a wider audience on things like this, we'd all know a lot more.

A lot of people are referring to a montipora capricornis that is purple with green polyps - Idaho grape is an undata species, not capricornis.

For Clarification:
I used the word hybrid as a general term, not restricted to the combination being genetic (didn;t realize that in this field, it is restricted to genetics). There is uncertainty as to just how these two corals got combined. I apologize for this poor use of terminology!

Grafting is, to the best of my knowledge, when two different corals which, through the lack of aggression, blend together to create a chimera. What I have is a coral with the characteristics of two different species, giving the impression of something that is neither one of them. My coral's new growth areas do not have the tiny lavender polyps of the Idaho grape monti, they have polyps that appear identical to the larger fluorescing green polyps of pocillopora. If it was only the color of the polyps that are different, or only the size, or if these polyps were not growing synchronously with, and on, the monti's new growth areas in absence of the polyps that one would expect, I would have a different view. A free-floating polyp can graft to another species, but if new coral growth comes from them, it would be the same coral as the polyp came from, which would presumably create a chimera.

The new growth areas are describes above - it has the characteristics of two different corals to look like a third. I have read of this happening in nature, as a matter of genetics.

Idaho grape is undata species, not capricornis. It seems a lot of people make that mistake.

My pieces are very tiny, as they are bits that were chipped and scraped off of my main rock structure when I was trying to clear real estate after removing a colony. I have pictures, but they aren't great due to the size of the pieces and a camera that is only 10 megapixels. I'll send updated pictures to Steve when there has been more growth, or when someone with a better camera can take pictures for me, so I can get some more feedback from him.

Please note that I am no expert, and have a lot of researching to do. Things will be clearer after the coral grows out more, and after I've done more information-gathering.

I would VERY GREATLY appreciate links to information!

 

[29reef]

The M. undata and the Idaho grape cap your talking about are different. Here's a link to what a wild undata looks like.

http://coral.aims.gov.au/speciesPages/species_metadata/0278/view#

Now here's what I think the grape cap is M. hodgsoni

http://coral.aims.gov.au/speciesPages/species_metadata/0732/image#

Now that I got that out of the way; can you post a photo of what your talking about? There is a pretty common infection that sps get that causes them to turn green, some people call this grafting, it however is not. Photos are necessary to continue

 

[vegita51]

Look up GFP, green florescent protein.