Weird find, not even sure if its LPS? Id help please

chrisstie

chrisstie

Premium Member
I have this growing on a rock I picked up with a bunch of mushrooms.. It kinda-sorta looks like a goniopora but the tentacles dont seem right but they do come out a little bit on stalks... I dont think its anything related to a zoanthid because when its closed up ALL the stalks go inside and theres just little tiny holes on an encrusted area that reminds me of porites (sps)

Not quite sure if its LPS but I figured its at least a place to start!


supermanrockzf5.jpg
 
My initial thought was goniopora but then it looks to be encrusting that rock which is odd. Maybe a pic when it is closed up would help.

I don't like to offer unsolicited advise but you might consider pulling out that little clump of bryopsis.
 
Yeah I do need to clean that off don't I :)

And I thought alveopora had 6 tentacles on a polyp and 12 made goni.. I will sneak in tonight and try to get a candid closed up shot :)
 
You may be right, chrisstie. I was thinking more were alveopora, but now that I think about it, they do have less tentacles. I change my answer to Goni;). I'm betting that the skeleton (coralites, specifically) when it closes up has small indentions and not columns like the galaxia.
 
Thanks doc and thats a cool pic! I am a mushroom addict :) Do you have one of what the galaxia looks like closed up? I forgot to go take a pic and I am so sunburned I don't want to move from my chair haha :( it was really sunny out today!

When I look up galaxia.. its close but not quite - but maybe i can see if it is the same when its closed up. The other pics of galaxia on the web also show very thick looking tentacles.. Mine are very very very thin and long kind of like the yellow zoo polyps. Grr I am stumped. I know I've seen something like this somewhere else too but i can't put a finger on it
 
yeah my first instinct was a bleached out looking (or picture with a flash) galaxea. I'm almost positive actually. Good luck with it if its galaxea BEWARE of the sweepers haha dont give him too much flow.
 
Alveopora has 12, gonis have 24. And there are encrusting type gonis. Unfortunately the AIMS site seems unavailable so I couldn't do a check but it looks like an encrusting goni to me.
 
Ah I blame my number-dislexia problem. Hmm I didn't know there were different species of goni- thats still my instinct, but bleached out really? I just got this from a new store so who knows what color its supposed to be, its a hitchiker, but maybe it'll do some tricks for me in the tank.

I will google and check out the aims website you mention, sounds like it might be a neat place to start looking, thanks!

Edit: Found this website
http://www.corallibrary.info/showgallery.php?cat=525

I am thinking it actually is a kind of gonipora - the picture of ciliatus i think closely resembles what I have, but so does the description of the norfolk one, too.
 
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Is the skeleton (coralites) smooth or indented or have columns? I feel 99% sure it doesn't have columns as the galaxia do. If it is smooth or slightly indented, it is not galaxia (as I hinted around at above). I don't think it's bleached either. I had a hitchhiker just like that one about 8 years ago. It developed a little color, but wasn't anything that would blow your mind. Wild colonies might take some time to color up.
 
My monies on galaxea, theres different ones not all are thicker like Doc's. In fact, I've never seen alot of the thicker ones till these past few years . Those tips give it away in my opinion, not being able to see the columns may be due to it being a fairly new encrusting outgrowth of an existing established colony.

-Justin
 
Lookin at that goni ciliatus makes me glad I didnt place all my money on that bet though! Can I split my hand? ;)

-Justin
 
Haha I know right?

Well thats just it, when its retracted at night (maybe ill rough it up and get a pic afterward so i can get a clear shot in the day) it doesn't have bumpy corallites.. If anything its flat- reminds me of porites (like the flat encrusting montis) with tiny little indents maybe 1mm in diameter and they're very evenly spaced
 
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